The Heat of Amber
by Thoughtful Constellations
Summary: (IM3) Tony Stark's relationship with Agent Grace Marks hasn't been great since New York. Unfortunately, things only get worse for them when the Mandarin attacks their home, separating the two. Grace & Tony each has a mission to complete, but when Killian captures Grace, Tony will do whatever it takes to defeat the Mandarin in order to protect the one thing he can't live without.
1. Big Brains

**Hey, guys!**

**Here's the first chapter to the long awaited Iron Man 3 Grace and Tony story! As an apology for ditching my Bruce Banner story after the fourth chapter, I made it a really long chapter. I'm so excited to get back to these characters, and I hope y'all are just as excited as I am!**

**For new readers, if you want to hop on board, Grace and Tony's story can be read in my other stories in the following order: Survival Skills, Healing Touch, Acting on Instinct, and Finding Fossils! Survival Skills takes place during Iron Man 2, and Acting on Instinct takes place during the Avengers, so if you don't want to read the "filler" stories, those are the more important stories. At least in my opinion.**

**Just as a warning, the shower scene WILL be put in, and that means that there'll probably be smut in the next chapter. Lots of smut. Shower smut.**

**Please let me know what you think of this so far by reviewing! I'm thrilled to be writing this!**

* * *

Chapter 1

"Ow!"

Tony jumped and winced as the sharp pain of the metal object he was injecting into his arm pierced through his skin.

"Forty-six," Jarvis droned. Tony injected another one into his arm and jumped again, letting out another groan of pain. Fuck, he hadn't expected it to hurt this badly. Even though Jarvis wasn't saying anything, Tony could practically hear the artificial intelligence saying, "I told you so." He closed his eyes sharply as the pain slightly abated.

"Forty-seven," Jarvis said.

"Ow!"

"Sir, _please _may I request just a few hours to calibrate the—"

"Nope." Tony cut him off and injected another painful piece of metal into his arm, ignoring the blood that was pooling out from his puncture wounds. Though technically, they weren't puncture wounds; they were—how would he describe them to Grace who was sure as hell going to react badly to what he was doing—signs that he was doing something right. There. That should be enough to get her off his back for a little while.

Thinking about Grace made the billionaire feel slightly guilty. His fiancée, Agent Grace Marks, was right upstairs, and she'd just returned from a mission the week before. Wait, was she upstairs? Or had she said something about going out? Fuck, Tony couldn't remember, and he shrugged it off. Whenever his lovely lady was gone, Tony missed the hell out of her, and he worried about her like no other, but he couldn't pull himself away from his work now that he was in the heat of it. He was so close to having this suit perfected, and besides, Grace understood it. She, of all people, knew that he had to feel safe, to feel that they _both _were safe. She understood. Even if she was off doing God knew whatever it was she did during the day now that she was home, she understood. Or at least that's what he told himself as he stared down at his bleeding arm in order to ease the guilt.

"Forty-eight," he mumbled to himself and let out a loud shout of pain as the last piece of metal was embedded into his muscle. "Micro-repeater implanting sequence complete."

"As you wish, sir, I've also prepared a safety briefing for you to entirely ignore," Jarvis said, knowing Tony too well.

"Which…I will," Tony replied absentmindedly as he smacked his arm with his hand to get the micro-repeaters jumpstarted."

"Sir, Agent Marks has called you three times, and you've ignored each time," Jarvis said. Tony winced at the thought of an angry Grace, but he pushed the image out of his head. He didn't have time to deal with it when he was so close to trying out his latest suit. At least he knew now that if she were calling him, that probably meant she wasn't right upstairs.

"If she calls back, tell her I'm in the middle of something," he said.

"That's what I've been telling her since her first call when you instructed me to do the same thing," Jarvis replied snarkily.

"You know, you also don't have to call her Agent Marks anymore. She's basically part of the family, and before you know it, she's going to be officially a Stark," Tony said.

"As you wish, sir," Jarvis answered.

"All right, let's do this. Dummy." Tony glanced irritatedly at the robot that was moronically sweeping the floor. If moronically sweeping the floor were possible, it would be Dummy who was capable of achieving it. Despite how annoyed Tony got with the robot, however, he had a soft spot in his heart for it because it just didn't know what the hell it was doing, and he could kind of relate to that as much as he didn't want to admit it.

"Hi, Dummy. How did you get that dunce cap on your head? You earned it. Hey. Hey! What are you doing out of the corner? You know what you did. Blood on my mat. Handle it." He pointed over to where he'd just been sitting, having crossed over to the center of his room to try out his new toy, and didn't wait to see if Dummy were smart enough to handle cleaning up the offensive blood.

"Sir, may I remind you that you've been awake for nearly 72 hours?" Jarvis announced. Tony mentally rolled his eyes. If it weren't Grace who was giving him that concerned look, it was Jarvis who was reminding him of how long he'd been awake. Goddammit, he just wanted to do what he needed to do. He was fine. So what if he didn't get a full 8 hours a night, if not more, that Grace did? He and Grace were two completely different people. He made karate moves at the camera in front of him that he'd set up to record the test run of Mark 42, his newest pride and joy.

"Focus up, ladies. Good evening, and welcome to the birthing suite. I am pleased to announce the imminent arrival of your bouncing, bad ass, baby brother." Tony turned around to face his latest suit that was lying in pieces on one of his work tables. The excitement coursed through his veins, and he felt a tingle run up his spine in anticipation.

"Start tight and then go wide," he directed to Dummy. "Stamp date and time. Mark 42. Autonomous prehensile propulsion suit test. Initialize sequence." He began wiggling his fingers and moving his wrists in order to stimulate the sensors he'd just spent painfully injecting into his arms. The sounds of the suit powering up were music to his ears, and he could barely contain himself with how thrilled he was to be testing this newest advancement.

"Jarvis, drop my needle," Tony ordered authoritatively. Sure enough, the artificial intelligence lowered the needle of Tony's record player, and the jazzy swing sounds of Christmas music filled the billionaire's ears. At the sound, he closed his eyes and busted out a few dance moves; there was nothing like playing good music when he was working.

And believe it or not, Grace had been the one to turn him onto this music. Tony prided himself on being a fan of all types of music, but he had to admit that his one true love was AC/DC. Grace, on the other hand, wasn't the biggest AC/DC fan, and she'd implored him to try different styles of music, a suggestion to which Tony hadn't taken very well. The amber-eyed SHIELD agent had then taken on a new, deeply personal mission: change Tony Stark's musical tastes. Every time he went into his lab, Grace had programmed a new kind of music for him to listen to. At first, he'd been pissed as hell, and they'd had a vicious row over it. Tony would be damned if anyone would change his music, even if it was the love of his life who was doing the changing. But then Grace had left for a real SHIELD mission, and he'd missed her so much that he'd started listening to the playlists that she'd left behind, and before he knew it, he didn't mind listening to new types of music down in his lab when he was working.

The music was pulsing through his body, and Tony decided that it was time. Eyeing the pieces of Mark 42, he hit his position, calling the armor to him. Nothing. A flash of irritation passed through Tony's chocolate brown eyes, and he tried hitting the position again, more aggressively this time. Nothing. Briefly, he wondered if he'd fucked something up due to not having slept, but no, that wasn't the case: Tony Stark was a genius, and he'd be damned if he needed sleep!

"Crap," he mumbled and put his mouth to his skin where the sensors were embedded, sucking hard to get them alive and activated. Punching his arm lightly, he heard and felt a slight zing beneath his skin, signifying that they were awake now. Smugness crept across his face as he got back into position. Within a few seconds, he had one of the hand pieces covering his hand. Success.

The shoulder and arm pieces flew to him, expanding and connecting to each other. He smirked as he watched everything fall into place around him. Who the fuck needed sleep when he could build shit like this?!

He got back into his stance, and the other hand piece was covering his free hand. Unable to contain himself, he let out a gleeful laugh. Everything was working the way it was supposed to now. For a moment, he considered calling Grace and waiting to show the rest of the suit until she was there with him, but he was too damn excited to slow down now. He's show her when she got home. From wherever she was.

"Alright, I think we got this. Send them all." He held his hands up in easy relaxation and enjoyment, ready for the rest of his armor to be sent towards him. A leg piece had attached itself to him, and that was when things started going a little haywire. A piece flew past him and embedded itself into the glass surrounding one of his earlier marks. Perturbed, he watched it crash and break the glass, and he frowned slightly. That wasn't supposed to happen.

Another piece flew and ricocheted off his arm. Fuck. Before he knew it, the pieces were going crazy, flying all kinds of directions before he could really get a hold on what was happening. This was going to be a long day.

* * *

Grace had just pulled up into the parking lot of Stark Industries when her phone rang. Mildly surprised that anyone was calling her, she pulled it out of her pocket and looked. Tony. Her eyebrows wrinkled in confusion as she saw his name on her screen, complete with a picture of him glowering at the camera. She'd taken the picture when he had been getting ready for an interview about a month ago, and he hadn't appreciated it. Grace, on the other hand, found it to be a hilarious picture, and she loved it. She rarely got candids of Tony because he was always posing, always hamming it up for the cameras, and really, he always looked so damn perfect when he did that. She loved the candids because they showed his true nature. Well, at least this one did, she thought with a smirk as she glanced at the name of her fiancé.

"Hello?" she answered, confusion lacing her voice.

"Uh, hi," Tony said.

"I wasn't expecting to hear from you today. I thought you'd be all busy in the lab today; you barely noticed I was gone," she said coolly.

"Oh, uh, sorry. I got a bit distracted. Hey, where are you?" he asked, suddenly changing the topic. Grace could sense a high amount of tension in his voice, and she instantly felt worry creeping into her chest, though she tried to suppress it. The more worry and concern she showed over Tony, the more annoyed he got with her, the more determined to be totally ok.

"I'm at Stark Industries right now. You know I was stopping in to meet with Pepper today," she said. "Is everything ok?"

"Oh. Yeah. Shit, I forgot you were doing that today. What'd she need with you again?"

"She wanted my opinion on a new possible product or something like that. Said it seemed right up my alley. I don't know when I'll be home, but I shouldn't be long, ok?" She tried to make her voice as soothing as possible, knowing that something was wrong with Tony. He sounded pretty wound up, but if he didn't want to talk about it, then fine. She wouldn't make him talk about it. Still, that didn't make the worry leave her heart, and as she checked her reflection in the rearview mirror of the car, she noticed that her dark eyebrows were still drawn together. Forcing herself to let the tension leave her face, she closed her eyes and leaned her head against the headrest.

"Ok. I'll see you when you get home," he replied absentmindedly. She suppressed the urge to sigh; she'd lost him again.

"Hey, hey, hey, tonight's date night!" she exclaimed before he could hang up. "Don't forget."

"Yeah, I know, I know. I won't forget. I'll see you later. I love you."

"I love you, too." When she hung up, she inspected herself one more time in the mirror, decided that she looked pretty all right, and she got out of the car. Stark Industries had become just as familiar to her as the Stark mansion was in the past two and a half years that she'd been with Tony. She loved being in the enormous, ultra modern building that had come as a result of Howard and Tony Stark's hard work because she knew that that was exactly what had gone into making the company what it was: hard work.

As she walked through the doors of the building, she was immediately swarmed by Happy.

"Badge," he snapped at her, but he did it with a grin, offering the Security badge out to her. She grinned back at him while taking it from him and clipping it onto her professional black blazer that she'd put on for the occasion.

"Hello to you, too, Happy," she said with a smirk.

"Everyone's gotta be wearing their badges. We don't want anything happening, you know. Stark Industries is a big target, especially because of Tony is. Hell, especially because of who _you _are, too, Miss I'm-About-To-Get-Married," he replied playfully. She gave a tiny shrug, smoothing her hand over her dark brown hair to make sure that all fly-away pieces were tucked away into her sleek high ponytail. Anyone looking at her would never have known that Grace Marks was a highly trained SHIELD agent who could take anyone down in one move.

"I'm here to see Pepper," she said. Happy's face lit up with recognition.

"That's right. I remember now. You're supposed to be sitting in on her 4:00 meeting," he said. With a gesture of his head, he was swiftly walking off towards where he was supposed to take her. Every time they passed someone, he was motioning towards the badge and barking left and right for everyone to put their badges on display. Grace swallowed down a snicker; Happy Hogan definitely took his job seriously, and he was definitely efficient.

"Pep!" he called out. Grace sensed the blonde CEO before she actually laid eyes on her. A wide smile split across her face when Pepper turned over her shoulder and saw the two approaching her. Without a second of hesitation, she'd crossed over to Grace, and the two women were hugging.

"Oh, it's so nice to see you," Pepper said happily. "I know I only saw you the other night, but still." She pulled back and smiled at her. Grace smiled warmly in return.

"Thank you so much for calling me in. You know I love doing stuff like this. Anything to keep me busy while Tony's working," she said, her smile dimming unconvincingly. Pepper caught onto it, and she showed no visible reaction.

"Oh, is he still working on his new suits?" she asked. Grace nodded, and before she could say anything, Happy had jumped in.

"Speaking of the suits, he's got so damn many of them, and I think that we could put them to use." Pepper began walking, Grace following, and Happy still talking. "Tony has got them in his basement. They're wearing party hats. This is an asset that we can put to use."

"Uh huh," Pepper replied vaguely, stopping to sign something real quick. "So you're suggesting that I replace the entire janitorial staff with robots." She handed the pen back to the woman she'd been signing something for, mouthing a quick thank you.

"What I'm saying is that the human element of human resources is our biggest point of vulnerability," Happy answered in a logical tone. Pepper glanced out of the corner of her eye and made eye contact with Grace's light gold eyes, and the two discreetly smirked to each other. Both women knew that there was no way in hell Tony Stark would let his suits be janitorial staff.

"We should start phasing it out immediately," Happy continued.

"What?" Grace murmured.

"Excuse me," he interrupted, "Bambi, you should be wearing—"

"Did you just say that?" Grace asked.

"Security? Yes?" Happy pointed to his own badge, seemingly ignoring the incredulous stares that Pepper and Grace were giving him.

"Happy, ok. I am thrilled that you are now the Head of Security. Ok? It is the perfect position for you," Pepper began.

"Thank you," Happy interjected. Grace stood off to the side slightly with an amused expression playing across her lips, trying hard not to burst into laughter. She knew that had Tony been there, she probably wouldn't have been able to keep her laughter down because he would be going ballistic at the suggestion that his precious suits be the new janitors of Stark Industries.

"However—" Pepper started.

"I do appreciate it," Happy interrupted. "You don't have to thank me."

"Since you've taken the post, we've had a rise in staff complaints of 300%," Pepper said firmly.

"Thank you," Happy nodded proudly.

"It's not a compliment," Pepper said.

"It's not…it _is _a compliment!" Happy protested. "Clearly, somebody's trying to hide something."

"I—" Pepper went to protest, but then a secretary interrupted her, thankfully saving her from having to continue this conversation.

"Excuse me. Ms. Potts, your 4:00 is here," the secretary said.

"Yes, thank you," Pepper replied gratefully, but the look on Happy's face was anything but grateful. Grace stifled another round of laughter as he began drilling the secretary, asking if she'd cleared the appointment with him, blah blah blah. She couldn't keep from letting out a tiny snicker.

"Happy, we'll talk about this later, but right now I have to go deal with this very annoying thing. Grace, this is where you come in." Pepper's blue eyes flicked over to Grace, wide with frustration and reluctance to take the appointment. Grace grinned in amusement back at her.

"Shall we, Miss Potts?" she asked, following the tall blonde.

"How so?" Happy interrupted, managing to follow them still.

"I used to work with him, and he used to ask me out all the time, so it's a little awkward," Pepper whispered discreetly, opening the door and walking into the room with Grace following her.

"I don't like the sound of that," Happy murmured. Grace gave him a look to cut it out and gestured her head towards the lobby.

"Pepper," the man said fondly. Grace glanced over her shoulder and saw a sleazy but attractive blonde man standing there with an unreadable smile on his face. Her guard instantly went up, but she fought to keep the defensiveness out of her face, instead turning back to Happy and insisting that he go back out to the lobby.

"Killian?" Pepper asked in surprise.

"You look great!" the man called Killian said, his eyes dragging the blonde's body. Grace's face was its typical blankness, and she surveyed the man with a cautious suspicion. There was definitely something unpleasant about this Killian guy, and she couldn't place her finger on it. She could tell when people were being genuine, and there was something very, very off about him.

"You look _really_ great," he emphasized.

"God, _you_ look great," she replied. "I...I…I c—what on Earth have you been doing?" Pepper asked, the surprise evident in her voice.

"Nothing fancy. Just five years in the hands of physical therapists. And please, call me Aldrich."

"Uh, you were supposed to be issued a Security badge," Happy interjected.

"Happy, it's ok," Pepper said, turning back and giving him the same look to get out of there that Grace had been giving him, too.

"Yes," Happy said quietly.

"We're good," Grace added.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. Stand down."

"Ok. I'm gonna linger. Right here. Ok." And with that, Happy was finally out of the room. Pepper turned her attention back to Aldrich Killian with a big, polite smile on her face.

"I'm so sorry, I completely forgot to introduce you to Grace Marks. She's one of our consultants here at Stark Industries," she said. Killian's eyes flicked over to Grace, and she felt as though she were covered in slime by the way that he looked at her. Her level of uncomfortable had risen significantly, but she forced herself to smile easily and politely at him, giving away nothing as to her true feelings. Thank God Tony wasn't there because he would take Killian's presence as a threat, and he wouldn't have hesitated to challenge the man.

"Oh, I know who you are, Miss Marks," he said brightly, that same plastered smile on his mouth. "I definitely know who you are. Anyone would be able to recognize those beautiful eyes, that beautiful face."

"Oh, please, you're too kind," Grace answered diplomatically.

"It's very nice to see you, Killian," Pepper said, leading him further into the room to where the couches were. Grace followed closely behind her, desperately trying to ignore the feeling of Killian's eyes on the both of them, drinking the sight of them in with every move they made.

* * *

In the meantime, Happy Hogan was getting a call, and he was cursing technology as he struggled to answer it.

"Hello?" he asked, finally figuring out how to work the damned thing, and he lifted it up to his head.

"Is this Forehead of Security?" Tony droned on the other line.

"What? You know, look, I've got a real job. What do you want? I'm working. I've got something going on here," Happy snapped, lowering the technology away from his face and glancing off to where Grace and Pepper were now standing inside the middle of this blonde bastard's giant ass hologram of a brain.

"What, harassing interns?" Tony quipped.

"Let me tell you something. Do you know what happened when I was _Iron Man's _bodyguard? They would laugh in my face. I had to leave while I still had a shred of dignity. Now I got a real job. I'm watching Pepper. Actually, right as we speak, I'm watching Pepper and Grace," Happy retorted.

"What's going on? Fill me in." At the mention of Grace's name, Tony instantly wanted to know what was happening. He'd known that she was going to be at Stark Industries—surprisingly, he'd remembered it since he'd gotten off the phone with her five, ten minutes ago—and he wanted to know what was going on, especially if Happy could see her.

"For real?" Happy asked.

"Yeah."

"Alright, so she and Pepper are meeting up with this scientist. Rich guy. Handsome."

"Right."

"I couldn't make his face at first, right? You know I'm good with faces."

"Oh, yeah, you're the best."

"Well, so I run his credentials. I make him. Aldrich Killian. We actually met the guy back in…where were we in '99? The science conference?"

"Uhhh…Switzerland."

"Right, right, exactly. Killian, now—"

"I don't remember that guy," Tony interrupted.

"Of course you don't remember. He's not a blonde with a big rack. At first, it was fine. They were talking business. But now, it's like, getting weird. He's showing her…his big brain."

"His what?" Tony asked, not sure if he'd heard correctly. He looked at the screen and saw Happy staring sincerely and urgently back at him.

"Big brain," Happy repeated, slightly impatient. "And she likes it. Here let me show you. Hold on. See?"

Tony waited in impatience as he only saw Happy's forehead again. God love him, the man didn't know how to use technology.

"Look at what? You, watching them? Flip the screen, and then we can get started."

"I'm not a tech genius like you!" Happy protested in defense. "Just—just trust me. Get down here!"

"Flip the screen! Then I can see what _they're _doing," Tony insisted.

"I can't! I don't know how to flip the screen!" Happy hissed in response. "Don't talk to me like that anymore. You're not my boss. Alright? I don't work for you. And I don't trust this guy. He's got another guy with him. He's shifty."

As Happy continued talking, Tony got too impatient, and he pulled up info on Aldrich Killian while he listened.

"Relax," Tony droned.

"Seriously? You're missing the way he's looking at her!" Happy exclaimed.

"I'm just asking you to secure the perimeter," Tony continued. "Tell them to go out for a drink or something."

"You know what? You should take more of an interest in what's going on here. This woman's the best thing that ever happened to you. She got you to clean your act up, and she agreed to marry you, and you're just ignoring her."

"A giant brain?" Tony asked for confirmation, seemingly ignoring Happy's words, when in all reality, he knew that that would be the only thing he really seemed to remember from his conversation with his former bodyguard. And he would remember that part because he knew it was true.

"Yeah. There's a giant brain. There's a shifty character. I'm gonna follow this guy," Happy replied. "I'm gonna run his plates, and I'm gonna…you know, if it gets rough, so be it."

"I miss you, Happy," Tony said, completely changing the subject.

"Yeah, I miss you, too, but the way it used to be. Now you're off with the super-friends. I don't know what's going on with you anymore. The world's getting weird!"

"I—I—I hate to cut you off," Tony said, knowing full well that he was cutting Happy off. He just didn't want to fucking hear it anymore. "Do you have your Taser on you?"

"Why?"

"I think there's a gal in H.R. who's trying to steal some printer ink. You should probably go over there and zap her."

That was a lie.

"Yeah, nice," Happy retorted. He wasn't stupid. He knew Tony was doing it to get off the subject. Before he knew it, Tony had shut him in the cooler where he kept all his wine. He rolled his eyes and hung up.

Meanwhile, Tony was walking away from the cooler trying to forget what Happy had said about him ignoring Grace. He wasn't ignoring her. He was busy. She fully supported him in what he did, anyway. But a nagging thought at the back of his mind bothered him, a question that wouldn't go away since Happy had said he was ignoring Grace: But if he weren't neglecting her, then why did he have to think so hard to remember what the touch of her skin felt like on his?


	2. That's You

**Shoutouts to bluemermaidpitch, byakuya7309, and hockeygurl39!**

**Alright, this is a good start, guys! It feels great to be back writing Tony and Grace, so yay!**

**I had a question about what I'm going to do after my Iron Man 3 story. That is a very good question. I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to do after I finish this. Of course, I'm going to continue their story whenever Avengers 2 comes out and any additional Iron Man/Avengers movies, but Avengers 2 won't be here for like, another two years, so I don't know what I'm going to do...if any of you has an ideas, please feel free to leave them in the reviews or a PM! Your ideas don't have to be Grace/Tony related, but if they are, that's always welcome, too.**

**I could always go back to Emma and Steve, I could write what happens with Grace/Tony after this story, I could write whatever, so please tell me your thoughts and opinions!**

**Also, please give thoughts and opinions on this chapter. Speaking of this chapter, I lied. I wrote too much in this and didn't get to the smut, so the smut will definitely be next chapter. For sure. Yay shower smut! ;) This chapter has the "I have to protect the one thing I can't live without" scene, and there are definitely differences between Pepper's reaction to it in the movie and Grace's reaction in this =)**

**Ok, please review and tell me what you think!**

* * *

Chapter 2

"Imagine if you hack into the hard drive of any living organism and recode its DNA," Killian said, his eyes lingering slightly on Grace. The entire time that Grace had sat—and then walked through—his presentation of his big, pretty brain, she'd felt his eyes on her, smelled the interest and lust that oozed off of him, and she very much wanted to snap his neck. However, she sat still on the couch next to Pepper with an interested, awed, and politely professional expression on her highly trained face. There was something so off with him that it made her skin crawl.

"That would be incredible," Pepper said, her tone giving off a thanks-but-no-thanks answer.

"Unfortunately, to my ears, it also sounds _highly_ weaponizable. As in, enhanced soldiers, private armies, all of that. Grace, what are your thoughts?" she asked. Grace nodded in agreement.

"I'm going to have to agree with Pepper on this one. There are a lot of positives that could come out of this, but the negatives are too risky, and Tony isn't—"

"Tony, Tony," Killian interrupted. His face looked oddly challenging, as if he were challenging the billionaire himself. "You know, I invited Tony to join AIM 13 years ago. He…turned me down. But something tells me now there's a new genius on the throne who doesn't have to answer to Tony anymore and who has slightly less of an ego. Two new geniuses, in fact. Miss Marks, you have a large amount of say in what happens here at Stark Industries, am I right?"

Grace smiled thinly in return at the sleazy dude in front of her.

"Not as much as you'd think, sir," she replied coolly and easily. "My area of expertise isn't quite as expansive as Pepper's is. I only get called in for a second opinion on something that fits into my field of study."

Killian's eyes seemed to sparkle as he stared her down. He didn't say anything, and for a moment, there was a heady tension in the room that made Grace want to actually get up and snap his neck, but thankfully, Pepper spoke up.

"It's gonna be a no, Aldrich. As much as I'd like to help you." Pepper's polite smile had slowly turned colder the instant that Killian had mentioned Tony and had tried talking shit about him. Grace had sensed the blonde's defenses sliding into place, and she couldn't blame her. Pepper and Tony were best friends; never had they been interested in each other as anything more, but they were thick as thieves, and Pepper was very defensive of the man. She was always honest about Tony for what he was, but she was still defensive about him because he was her best damn friend in the world, and she was going to be damned if someone sat there in her office and tried to talk shit about him. Grace privately grinned to herself, keeping her face turned away from the gross scientist in front of her.

"I suppose that's my cue then," he replied with a disappointed smile.

"Please, let us walk you out," Pepper said quickly, returning to her professional ease, always the polite one. They all stood up and began walking out towards the front of the building where Killian would then take his leave. He couldn't leave quickly enough in Grace's book.

"Congratulations on the engagement, by the way, Miss Marks," Killian smoothly intoned as they walked down the pristine halls of Stark Industries. Grace allowed her face to spread into a warm, wide smile in response.

"Thank you very much. Tony and I are ecstatic," she answered.

"I can imagine. The two of you make a wonderful pair. I think it's safe to say that the world was waiting for Tony Stark to be tamed, and then you walked in at the perfect time." He let out a soft chuckle as if he were sharing an inside joke with the agent. Grace's head turned sharply towards him, her expression deadening slightly at his words.

"Oh, I can assure you that no one can tame Tony Stark," she said. "I didn't tame him. I never expected to tame him. He's still the same unpredictable Tony as ever." She smiled warmly, covering the sharpness of her words perfectly. If Natasha had been there, the redheaded agent would've applauded her. Killian shrugged good-naturedly. Quickly and hungrily, his eyes scanned over her entire body before meeting hers again. A little smirk ran across his face, gone before Grace could really process it.

"Well, whatever you did, it worked," he replied. They had reached the front of Stark Industries, and they walked outside. "Well, I can't say that I'm not disappointed. But then, as my father used to say, 'Failure is the fog through which we glimpse triumph.'"

"That's very deep," Pepper answered diplomatically with a slightly confused frown on her face.

"And I have no idea what it means," Grace continued. Pepper laughed and nodded with her, as did Killian.

"No, me neither. He was kind of an idiot, my old man. It was wonderful seeing you again, Pepper. You look amazing, as always. I'm sure I'll be seeing you again, Miss Marks." When he turned to Grace, he held out his hand to her. Reluctantly, but without showing a hint of her negative feelings towards the man, she took his extended hand in hers.

Sometimes Grace hated that she could sense what people were going to do before they could actually do them, and this instance was one of them. She knew that he was about to pull her closer to him, and he did, kissing her on the cheek in such a way that she wondered if the professional line had been crossed. Actually, what the fuck was she thinking; the professional line had been crossed when he hadn't been able to take his eyes off her throughout the entire presentation. A cold chill ran down her spine, and she forced her face to remain calm and undisturbed by the feeling of his lips pressing against the skin of her cheek.

When he pulled back, he was wearing that smirk on his face, but he quickly turned to Pepper, giving her the same kiss. He smiled, and then he had turned and was walking away. Pepper watched him with a frown on her face before turning to Grace.

"Did he make you uncomfortable?" she asked quietly. Grace diplomatically shrugged as she watched Killian walk away with that easy swagger she was beginning to associate with him.

"He's certainly passionate about what he does," she replied. Pepper gazed at her with her clear blue eyes, a perplexed expression marring her pale features. However, she knew better than to press anything with the SHIELD agent, and she nodded distantly, her mind already off onto the next meeting that she had to take care of.

"Happy!" Grace greeted as she saw the overly efficient Head of Security walk up behind Pepper. Pepper turned to face him, though her expression didn't change very much. Grace could tell that Aldrich Killian would be plaguing Pepper Potts's thoughts for the rest of the afternoon, and honestly, Grace was in the same damn boat.

"Car's ready, Grace. If you're ready to go?" he said, his voice rising at the end as if he were asking her. Grace nodded joltingly; her body didn't quite feel as though it were hers, and she knew that that was how badly Aldrich Killian had shaken her up. Casually, she reached out to Pepper for a hug and embraced the taller woman.

"I'll see you soon, Pep. We all need to go to dinner later this week or something and just relax," she said. Pepper grinned cheekily at her.

"Do you think you can get Tony out of his lab long enough to relax?" she quipped. Grace rolled her amber eyes in acquiescence and shrugged.

"Touche."

"Take care, Grace. We'll talk."

"Bye, Pep!" When Grace turned around to talk to Happy, she saw that he was taking a picture of the car that Aldrich Killian had gotten into. Folding her arms across her chest, she squinted at the man.

"So you got something funny on him, too?" she asked. Happy nodded, not quite turning around to face her as he continued to stare at the retreating car.

"Yeah, something's weird," he said. "But don't you worry, Grace! I'm on it! I'll take care of it!" He opened the car door for her and expectantly waited for her to get in. Amused, Grace suppressed the smile on her face. Happy seemed to forget that the first time he'd really seen her in action, Natasha had warned him not to touch her or she would probably kill him. In all honesty, though, Grace appreciated how Happy wanted to take care of her and keep her safe, and that was why she never said anything to him about how she could kill a person with just one blow.

"I'll see you later, Happy!" she said, smiling as she buckled her seatbelt. Absentmindedly, he raised his hand and smiled at her as she drove off, but she could tell that he wasn't paying attention to her. He was paying attention to something else that was far more pressing in his mind, and she had the strangest feeling in her gut that he'd been shaken up by Aldrich Killian and his nasty looking little minion, too.

As Grace started the drive home, she couldn't wait to get back where everything was familiar to her, even if it meant that Tony wouldn't exactly be paying attention to her. She didn't say anything to him about his suits because she knew what it was like to want to be safe and to keep the people she loved safe; that was her thought whenever she went on her missions for SHIELD. Every little thing she did was to make sure that she came home to Tony and that Tony wouldn't, in any way, be harmed from her mission.

She'd noticed a change in herself over the past year, and she wasn't sure how exactly to feel about it. Ever since she'd been injected with her father's Super Soldier Serum, she'd always looked out for herself. That was what survival skills were: they were to guarantee that she _survived_. However, when the Chitauri had invaded New York just several months ago, she'd taken the hit for Tony when he'd been down, and the alien warriors had been about to blast him with their weapons. She hadn't even stopped to think about it; she'd just run in front of him and blocked the hit. Had the invasion happened three years sooner, she probably wouldn't have done that. Hell, there was no way on Earth she would've done that, but yet, she'd done it for Tony. For the first time in her entire life, she'd taken the hit for someone else.

Letting out a sigh in the car, she cleared her mind of everything and turned the music on. She might as well not worry about anything until she got home to Tony.

* * *

And Grace's worry started the instant she pulled up into the driveway and saw a giant stuffed shark sitting there. Her mouth literally dropped as she stared up at it. The shark wasn't a scary shark; it was a cute shark that appeared to be smiling. But nonetheless, it was a shark. And she sat there. Staring at the shark. In shock.

Nothing could've fucking prepared her for that.

"Oh, boy," she breathed to herself as she stepped out of the car. Tony was in one of his manic moods, and that could mean anything.

She walked up towards the house, moving quickly as she realized what time it was. Dammit, she'd been caught in traffic on the way home, and she hadn't expected to get home as late as this. Places would still be open, but they'd be crowded. Deep down, she found it an advantage that Tony's name could get them a seat anywhere. Really, just by dropping her name, she could get a seat at any trendy restaurant, but she hated doing that. However, desperate times called for desperate measures, and this was one of those times.

Date night was something that they'd started doing right after the confrontation with her mom had gone down. It'd just sort of started happening, simple as that. It was the one night a week that Grace got with Tony, no distractions, no suits, no anything. Just her and Tony and some good old fashioned sex whenever they got back from dinner. Or crazy sex. The main point was that there was sex involved.

She pushed the door open and quickly hurried inside.

"I'm sorry I'm late. I was—" She was cut off when she saw a suit sitting on the couch in front of her. "Whoa. Ok. Hello to you, too. What's this? You're wearing this in the house now? What is that, like, Mark 90?"

"Uh, not quite. Mark 42," Tony said, glancing down at the Mark 42 on his arm as if he needed to verify it. Grace shrugged, letting it go.

"I guess 42 is better than 90," she replied.

"You know, everybody needs a hobby," he said, moving towards her in the suit.

"Oh, and you have to wear your hobby in the living room?" Grace sat down and leaned back in one of the couches in the living room, glancing up at him as he came closer to her.

"Just…breaking it in. You know, it's always a little pinchy in the gooey bag at first, so..." He stopped as she giggled at what he said, and he watched her roll her eyes. "Well, hey! Did you see your Christmas present?"

Grace wanted to slam her head against the wall. Yeah. She'd seen it, and she knew he was excited over it, but she didn't quite know how to respond to it. She squinted her amber eyes at him as she fought for the right words to say.

"Yes, I did. I—I don't know how I could've missed that Christmas present. Is it gonna fit through the door?"

"Well, actually, it's a good question. I got a team of guys coming tomorrow."

Grace picked up some of the fan mail that Tony had received, and she smiled, her heart melting as she saw the crayon drawings that depicted a red and yellow Iron Man. The public adored Tony, and it always made her soften to see how much he meant to and was admired by kids. One drawing in particular made her smile because it showed Tony in his Iron Man suit holding hands with a girl in a black outfit and long brown hair pulled back in a braid, clearly signifying that it was her who was in the picture.

She got fan mail, too; Tony wasn't the only one to receive it, even if he did act like he was, but she received plenty of fan letters from little girls around the world who were fascinated by her and wanted to be a superhero with a superhero boyfriend, too. For a second, she was so lost in the adorable drawings that she missed what Tony was saying.

"Ok," she said vaguely.

"Tense? Good day? Huh?" His hands were on her shoulders, and she closed her eyes as she received the much needed massage. Really, it wasn't an actual massage because she was technically getting her shoulders kneaded by Iron Man and not Tony, but whatever. Even in his Iron Man suit, he was a damn good masseuse, and she wasn't going to tell him to stop.

"Ooh, shoulders. A little knotty. Naughty girl. I don't wanna harp on this, but did you like the custom shark?"

"Did I like it…"

"Nailed it, right?"

"Wow." Grace kept her face devoid of any kind of emotion, and she tucked her head downwards so he couldn't see her face. Whenever she put on her blank face in front of him, he always knew that she was doing it for some reason.

"I…appreciate the thought very much," she said. "Why'd you choose a shark?"

"I figured something like a butterfly or a mouse didn't suit you very well. A shark, though. That suits you."

Despite herself, she grinned and stood up to face him. She didn't always understand his logic, but sometimes he could be damn cute. Also, a niggling suspicion told her that something was up; Tony didn't wear his suit around the house outside the lab, and the fact that he was wearing it meant that he was up to something. Curiosity filled her blood, but she hid it behind a flirtatious, darker look in her eyes as she took several steps towards him.

"So, why don't you lift up that face mask and give me a kiss?" she asked darkly, her words full of what she was implying. Her amber eyes were bright and shining in the reflection of the fire, and she knew how to play her expression just right to get Tony to give in to her. Much to her surprise, though definitely confirming her suspicions, he imitated beeping noises and knocked on the top of his helmet.

"Huh…yep. Dammit. No can do. You want to just kiss it on the…the facial slit?"

"Uh huh," she replied soothingly and seductively all at once. "Well, why don't I run down to the garage and see if I can't find a crowbar to jimmy that thing open?" She bit her lip and tilted her head back the tiniest bit, working her face just right.

"Crowbar, yeah," Tony crooned. "Oh! E-except there's been a—uh—uh—a radiation leak!"

"I'll take my chances," Grace retorted. Her voice had an edge to it; she was getting a little tired playing these games, and she didn't care if he caught onto it now.

"That's risky!" he called after her. "At least let me get you like, a hazmat suit you can—a Geiger counter or something like that."

It was too late by that point, and Tony knew it as soon as he heard Grace's footsteps coming down the stairs. Fuck, fuck, fuck he was caught, and there wasn't a damn thing he could do about it.

"Busted," he said, attempting to make light of the situation. He turned around and saw her standing there, her stance completely neutral, exactly like her face. This was one of those moments when he wished that she would show any kind of emotion on her face because complete blankness was more scary than any amount of anger, irritation, or frustration.

"This is a _new level _of lame," Grace monotoned as she pushed away a plate that Dummy was offering her. She shot the robot a back-off glare, and that was when she realized that the food on the plate was half-eaten.

"Sorry," Tony mumbled, and he did look it. At least he did appear genuine. However, he also looked mildly scared of her, though she figured that that could work to her advantage.

"You ate without me already? On date night?" she asked incredulously, gesturing to the plate. Her voice was full of surprise, but, as usual, her face showed nothing. Her amber eyes were flashing, and she flicked her long ponytail back over her shoulder so it fell straight down her back. Nervously, Tony fidgeted and wondered how the fuck he was going to dig himself out of this one because, yes, even if she didn't have any emotions where he could see them, he knew her well enough to know that she wasn't happy with him right now.

"He was just—"

"You mean you," Grace interrupted.

"Well, yeah, I just mean _we_ were just…just hosting you while I finished up some work."

Grace let out a noise of disbelief, and Tony knew that he was losing the battle. Frantically, he searched his mind for anything. He wouldn't be able to stand it if Grace were mad at him and didn't want to talk to him the rest of the night. That panic attack he'd had with Rhodey earlier that morning, the Mandarin threat, and now Grace being mad? It would be too much, and he was desperate to make things ok again. Mentally, he kicked himself for pushing it too far. Again.

"Uh huh," she snorted.

"And yes, I had a quick bite. I—I didn't know if you were coming home or you were having drinks with Aldrich Killian."

The suit turned and looked at Grace as if even he couldn't believe that she were with Aldrich Killian. As soon as Tony said that, he knew he'd just dug himself in deeper, but he hadn't been able to help himself. The words had fallen out of his mouth before he could stop them, and they were lying out there in the open, ready for her to grab out of the air and destroy. Her eyes were empty as she stared at the suit.

"What?" she snapped.

"What?" Tony asked innocently.

"_Aldrich Killian_? What, are you checking up on me?" The words wrapped themselves around Tony's throat, slowly cutting off his air supply, and he inwardly winced at the force of them.

"Happy was concerned," he defensively replied with his arms folded across his chest.

"No, you're spying on me. What's there to be concerned about, anyway? This Aldrich Killian character was slimy, and I wanted no part of it. Goddammit, Tony." She angrily smoothed a hand over her hair, pressing her hair flat against her skull. With her hair pulled back so tightly from her face in her high ponytail, her cheekbones and features looked sharper and more intense. In all honesty, Agent Grace Marks looked as lethal as she promised she could be. A twist of guilt took place deep in Tony's gut, and he knew that the look was written all over his face.

"I wasn't spying," he defended.

"I'm going to bed." She sharply turned and began walking up the stairs. Goddammit, Tony couldn't let her leave like this.

"Hold on. Come on. Grace? Hey, I admit it!" He held up his hands in defeat, knowing that this was the one thing, the last resort, to get her to stay. "My fault. Sorry." It had the desired effect on her because she slowed and turned to look at him. Her light, golden eyes connected with his, and he stood still. Even when she was furious with him, she was captivatingly beautiful. As he stood looking back at her, Happy's words came back to him, and he knew that Happy had been right. He'd been ignoring Grace, and things were only getting worse between the two of them. He couldn't keep down what he'd been feeling and thinking for the past few months, and again, the words flooded out before he could stop them.

"I'm a piping hot mess," he said quietly. His hands dropped, slapping hard against his thighs in resignation. As he folded his arms, his mouth pressed tightly together, and a frown settled on his face, as if he couldn't decide whether to keep going or to be quiet. "It's been going on for a while. I haven't said anything."

She slowly began coming back to him, walking down the stairs, her hand trailing down the rail that lined the curvy stairs. Each step brought her closer to him, and he craved the feel of her hands on him.

"Nothing's been the same since New York. You know that. I know you do," he said. Grace was still for a moment, and then she nodded.

"It hasn't been," she agreed quietly.

"We experienced things, and now they're over, and we still can't explain them. Gods, aliens, other dimensions. I'm just a man in a can. Jesus, I don't need to explain it to you. You were there with me. Grace…the only reason I haven't cracked up is because you agreed to marry me. Which is great. _I love you_. I'm lucky. But honey…I can't sleep. You go to bed, I come down here. I do what I know. I tinker. I…" He sighed, suddenly not sure what to say. It was all flowing from him now, and there was no taking it back. He could feel the burn of her eyes on him, and he couldn't make himself meet her eyes just yet. "Threat is imminent. Again, I don't need to tell you this because you know more than anyone else. But threat is here, and it's not going anywhere. And I have to protect the one thing that I can't live without. That's you." He pointed at her, and then his hand fell, limp onto his lap as if all the energy had drained out of him. When he looked in Grace's eyes, he saw that all of the tension had released from her body; her eyes were on him, and though her stare was solid, she was soft.

"And my suits, they're, uh…they're part of me," he said finally.

"And you're part of _me_," she said, her voice soft and soothing in the space of his lab. Out of all the things she could've said, that was the best thing, and Tony found that his throat was tightening. Swallowing hard, he gazed at her in amazement, still surprised that he'd ended up with her. Without saying anything, she quietly crossed to him and stood in front of him. His dark eyes were still connected to hers, and he looked up at her, almost reverently, as she stood stock still in front of him. Due to her small stature, she wasn't that much taller than him as she stood when he sat, but she had enough height over him to look down at him.

Nestling herself against him, she ran her hands up his biceps and over his shoulders. A smile settled lightly on her mouth, and for the first time in a long fucking time, Tony thought he was going to be ok. His arms wrapped around her, his hands on the small of her back, and he leaned his head forward against the smoothness of her chest. Closing his eyes, he relished in the feeling of her connecting her hands at the back of his neck and dropping her own head on top of his, cradling him against her body.

She removed his headset, and he pulled back. Her hands were running through his hair, and it was sticking up in that way she loved. His dark brown eyes were earnest as they stared into her golden ones. That smile was still there, and she ran her hands over the muscles in his shoulders. Touching him did just as much for her as it did for him. When he looked at her, he was relieved to see that her blank face was gone, and her eyes were full of a returning emotion.

"I'm not like you," he said softly. She tilted her head to the side and pressed her lips together with a firm shake of her head.

"Don't say that," she said. He went to speak, but she cut him off by pressing her mouth to his, kissing him roughly. He paused, but then he kissed her back. The act of affection had started out rough, but as he kissed her back, the kiss became more gentle, more sweet. His chest ached, though he wasn't sure if it were physical or emotional that caused the pain. She pulled back and offered a tiny smile.

"I'm gonna take a shower," she said.

"Ok," he said almost reluctantly, not sure how to respond to that. Frowning, he watched her walk away from him and start up the stairs. Had he lost her? What had just happened?

"And you're gonna join me," she added, turning over her shoulder to give him a no-nonsense look. Tony's dark eyebrows shot skywards, and he nodded.

"Better," he replied quickly. When he looked back at her, she was grinning wickedly at him, and his heart was reduced to a puddle. She walked up the stairs to get a head start, and he was left by himself in the lab to collect his thoughts before he went up and lost himself in her.

He'd known that she knew what had been going on with him; she wasn't stupid, and neither was he. But still, just telling her and expressing it out loud made him feel a little better. And after her reaction, he knew he wasn't going to lose her because of it. Nothing felt better than that realization. She wasn't going anywhere, and he sure as hell wasn't either.

As he started up the stairs, he thanked a god that he didn't believe in for giving him palladium poisoning and having SHIELD send him Agent Grace Marks. She'd saved him then, and he had a feeling that he was going to need her to save him again.


	3. Water

**Shoutouts to bluemermaidpitch, VampWolf92, and Guest for the reviews!**

**Also, welcome new followers! I hope you enjoy hopping on this crazy train =)**

**Ok, this chapter is much shorter than the chapters I've been writing (this one is 4 pages on Word, whereas my others have been 11 or 12 pages), but this is the SMUT chapter, and I also wanted to get a chapter up because I've left y'all in limbo for a while. I'll try to be better about updating, but the college life is crazy, man.**

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* * *

Chapter 3

When Grace got upstairs, she went straight to the shower and turned it on, her mind operating solely on pilot mode. Her thoughts were elsewhere, not focusing on the steam that was already beginning to rise from the hot water that was now filling the enormous enclosed space that Tony Stark considered a shower. As always, Grace was thinking about Tony. Piece by piece, she casually and carelessly undressed, tossing her shirt onto the floor, taking her pants off, and undoing her hair from its high ponytail. Her long dark hair shook out as she tossed her head. Tony. He'd just opened up to her down in the lab in a way he never had before, and she was even more concerned about him than she usually was.

Her chest constricted, and she found that she couldn't breathe. Her hand flying up to her chest, she forced herself to draw in a deep breath and remain calm. So much was happening. Killian, Tony, the suits—it was all a lot for her to process. It was then that she could sense Tony coming into the bedroom and into the bathroom, but she didn't turn around to face him. Instead, she held still. Her back was to him, and she was gripping the edge of the bathroom sink as she fought for control over her lungs.

"Hey," Tony said softly. His voice was a quiet lull in the midst of the roar of the shower. He came up behind her slowly and put his hands on her shoulders, sliding them down to her wrists and reveling in the softness of her olive-toned skin. Leaning down gently, his mouth pressed lightly into the back of her shoulder at the nape of her neck. A shiver ran down Grace's spine at the contact. As usual, his touch on her skin made her relax, and she closed her eyes. It was getting easier to breathe, and her body was responding beautifully to his touch. Tony noticed this, and he allowed himself to move even closer to her, his torso and hips making contact with her bare skin. Before he could stop himself, an exhale of breath escaped his mouth and warmed her shoulder.

"I love you," he murmured into the warmth of her neck. Turning around, Grace looked up at him sincerely with her wide amber eyes. The expression on her face was almost curious as she stared at him. Her eyes flicked down to look at his lips and then returned back to his eyes. Reaching her head up and pulling him closer to her, she kissed him tentatively on the mouth. Tony ran his hands up and down her body. She was only in her bra and underwear, and an uncomfortable pressing against his jeans between his legs told him that he was responding the way he should.

As if she could read his mind, Grace's hands moved between them to his hips, undoing the button and unzipping his jeans quicker than he could process. He stepped back to lift his shirt over his head, missing the touch of her hands on him as he took those few seconds to remove his clothing. He stepped out of his jeans, and before he lost his mind from not touching her, he pulled her into him again.

They were kissing gently and carefully, hands skimming over one another. Tony slid his right hand behind her back and flicked her bra open in one quick gesture. He felt her smile against his chest as her lips grazed him there. Inhaling slowly, he watched her kiss him by his arc reactor; she knew that was his biggest vulnerability, and she made sure that he knew she wasn't afraid of it or that she found it repulsive. She found it anything but. The arc reactor kept him alive, and she loved it for that reason.

His thumbs hooked into the elastic of her underwear, and he nudged them off of her. After removing his own boxers, he led her to the shower, where they both got in. The warm steam and warm water surrounded the two of them. Grace immediately moved her head back into the flow of the water, allowing it to darken and wet her hair.

Tony's lips spread into a smile as he watched her enjoy the feeling of the water raining onto her skull. She ran her hand over her now wet hair and opened her eyes, the light gold of them meeting his own dark eyes.

"What?" she asked, her voice loud enough to be heard over the jets of the shower. He shook his head without saying a word and joined her under the spray. His body was close to hers, but they didn't touch. Instead, he enjoyed the feeling of the water washing away everything that bothered him. Wincing slightly, he ignored the ache of his chest. Water was never the most pleasant thing when it came to his arc reactor. Of course, he'd designed the arc reactor to be water-resistant so there was no worry about damage occurring to it; however, there was something about the feeling of water on the area of the gaping hole on his chest that was unpleasant. Grace always said that he took the quickest showers out of anyone she'd ever known. Well, it was because of his arc reactor.

He stood with his back to the water, allowing the shower pressure to come down on the back of his head and his back. His dark chocolate eyes were closed, and he was surprised at the feel of Grace's hands snaking around his waist from behind him. Reaching behind him, he gently pulled her in front of him so he wouldn't have to turn around and get his chest in the spray, and he kissed her with that same tentative shyness that she'd kissed him with earlier that day. It was almost as if they were testing each other; how far could they go with each other's hearts?

And in that moment, he allowed her to go as far as she would go with his. Taking her hands, he placed them on his chest and wrapped his own arms around her, deepening their kiss with a passionate urgency neither of them had experienced from the other in a very long time. For a moment, Grace wasn't entirely sure how to respond—that's how long it'd been since they'd been intimate like this. Tony felt her hesitation, and he wondered if he were doing something wrong. Jesus, he wasn't sure if he were doing something right sexually—that was a first. Before he could really question himself and his actions, she pressed her slick body against his and pushed her tongue hungrily into his mouth.

Grace's body was starving for him, and it was clear the more she kissed him. They hadn't been together—_really _been together in a long time, and Jesus Christ, had she missed him. His body was so familiar to her that she could read every contracted muscle, every scar, every callused part of his skin with her eyes closed and her hands tied behind her back. Tony was home to her. She pressed her lips to his neck and down his chest, the taste of water mixed with his skin on her tongue. She moved further down until she was on her knees in front of him.

Tony's eyes went dark as he saw her position, and he adjusted his body just the right way so that the water wouldn't hit her face as she took his penis in her mouth. A sharp inhale of breath caught in his throat as the sensation of her hot mouth surrounding him built up inside him. A groan escaped his throat, and his hands went to the back of her wet head, gently guiding her as she moved her head, her tongue flicking expertly in all the places that she knew he adored.

As much as he loved this, he knew he wouldn't last much longer if she continued.

"Honey, I'm not gonna last," he groaned out and pulled her up until she was standing on her feet. Her eyes were glistening with a wetness he couldn't quite place, and he frowned. The water of the shower pounded on his back still, relaxing his muscles with the heat and the gentle pressure of the spray. A frown settled onto his face, and he took her head in his and kissed her sweetly but roughly. Tony was a good lover; he knew when it was appropriate to be tender and gentle, and he knew when it was the time to be rough and relentless. This time, he was both.

He backed her up against the wall of the shower and pushed her into the cool tiles, his lips attacking hers. They were far enough away from the water of the shower so they didn't have to worry about water getting into eyes or noses because if anything was a boner killer, it was inhaling water and coughing violently. The urgency built quicker with each second that passed, and he knew he needed to be inside her soon. Turning her around so her chest was pressed into the tiles, he reached between them and pushed his hand between her thighs. Her head fell back as he pushed a finger inside her. Much to his sexual delight, she was already wet, and he inserted another finger, moving agonizingly slowly.

"Tony," she gasped out against the tile. He pulled his fingers out of her and lightly brushed them over her clit, eliciting another moan of his name. Feeling the urge to mate, he grasped himself in his hand and slid into her. She was quiet, resting her head against the damp, cool tiles as she allowed him to stretch her. The metal of his arc reactor was against her back, and the light graze of his beard was against her spine as he kissed her. His hands grasped her hips, and he began to move. His thrusts were slow and careful, filling her in a delicious way she'd only known after she'd met him. With each thrust, her hipbones were pushed into the tiles, and even though she figured she would have bruises, she didn't mind at all. A moan eased out of Tony's throat and into her ear as he continued to move inside her.

Suddenly, he pulled out and turned her around. Quickly, he lifted her legs so that they were wrapped tightly around his waist, and he positioned her against the wall. There was a new urgency to his movements, a frantic quality to them, as if he couldn't stand being outside of her longer than he had to be, as if he needed to be inside her as soon as possible. And so he thrust into her and picked up the pace.

Grace lowered her mouth to his and kissed him roughly, setting the mood, and he began moving quicker and quicker. He pressed her more firmly against the wall, spreading her legs even wider and allowing him deeper access into her body. Her amber eyes snapped shut as he hit that spot that promised a much needed orgasm. Tony was in tune with her body and knew he'd scored exactly what he'd been looking for, and he continued to push deeper and deeper in order to bring her to climax. Her lean, toned muscles tightened beneath his hands, and she kissed him, her mouth open as she finally found her relax. A cry of pleasure transferred from her throat into his, and she gripped his wet hair between her fingers, riding out her orgasm.

Tony didn't slow his pace as she climaxed. If anything, her orgasm had triggered something for him, and he knew he really wasn't going to last much longer. He suddenly found himself overwhelmed with what was happening, and his chest swelled with an emotional ache for how much he loved Grace. He pulled her tightly to him, and he was thrusting roughly and deeply, seeking his own orgasm while also seeming to build another one inside her. Her mouth moved from his and moved to his shoulder, her tongue running lightly over his collarbone, and she gently nipped him with her teeth. The sharp sensation did it, and he gave a hard, violent thrust. As she tightened around him for the second time, he came. Tony's eyes were shut, and he wouldn't remember calling out Grace's name as he rode out the blinding, rolling sensation of pleasure that clouded his vision and left a ringing in his ears.

As the feeling began to dull, he felt her body breathing heavily against his, and he carefully pulled out of her and lowered her legs to the ground. Instead of moving away from her, however, he took her hands in his and backed up until they were both in the downpour of the shower. There in the water, he took her in his arms and held her tightly, the water washing away everything that had been between them before. And so he held her because there was nothing in the world that could separate them at that moment in time, and he would be damned if there were anything in the world that could separate them at all.


	4. Explosions

**Shoutout to byakuya7309, bluemermaidpitch, MicroSpider, VampWolf92, Guest, and Alexstarlight18!**

**Sorry to take so long as always, guys. This one is super long for you. We're starting to get into the heat of action, and I'm super excited about writing that!**

**I had someone suggest that I write a Hawkeye/OC after this, and here's the thing. Normally, I'd love to do that, but I'm such a Clintasha shipper. I love Clint and Natasha together, so I don't think I can make an OC that I like better than Natasha. The reason I write OC stories is because I don't like the pairing that the character is with. (Just to clarify, I don't hate Pepper. People always think I hate Pepper, but I totally don't. I like her. I just don't think she's right for Tony, hence why I created Grace.)**

**Keep sending me what you'd like to read after I finish this. You can leave ideas in the reviews, or you can PM me. I always answer my PMs, even if I don't answer them immediately! I don't know if you guys watch Supernatural, but I'm probably going to write some Supernatural fics. I just got into that show, and I'm LOVING it.**

**Anyway, here's the super long chapter. Let me know what you think, please! Please leave reviews so I know what you like and what you don't! I love reading y'all's thoughts =)**

* * *

Chapter 4

Grace and Tony spent the rest of their evening in bed. For the first time in a long as shit time, they just lay there and watched TV, wrapped up in each other. However nice it felt, though, Grace kept herself on guard; she wasn't an idiot. She knew that this wasn't going to last forever, no matter how much she hoped that it would. In a day or two's time, Tony would be back down in the lab, and she wouldn't say anything about it because of tonight.

She could honestly say that she and Tony had an open, honest relationship with each other. He was her best friend; she could tell him anything, and he told her whatever he wanted to whenever he wanted to. Even though they'd never discussed their time in captivity in detail, they'd talked about it, and if that didn't show that they were open with each other, she didn't know what did.

Yet despite everything, the one thing he refused to talk about with her was New York. Grace hadn't taken a psychology course during her brief stint in college before she'd been transported to South America, but she knew enough from her independent studies that Tony was suffering from some kind of PTSD. She'd suspected it all along, ever since the Chitauri had invaded New York. He rarely slept, he got manic, and he would get this panicked look about him sometimes, as if he were on the verge of freaking out on the spot. When he'd called her earlier that day when she was about to meet Pepper, he'd sounded anxious and panicked, and she'd let it go. She wasn't sure how much longer she could keep ignoring the issue. But he'd opened up to her tonight and told her that he was having problems, and that was a start. That was a very small, very good start.

One thing that had bothered her a lot had been when Tony said he wasn't like her; it was total bullshit. She still had nightmares about New York; who wouldn't? New York had told her how insignificant and powerless she was in the scheme of things, and she knew that that was what Tony was feeling, too, just on a much larger scale. He was so much like her that it was creepy; he was used to be in control, and when he wasn't controlling his body and his surroundings, he panicked. That was what New York had been for him. He hadn't been able to control his suit, and he'd plummeted through the stratosphere, racing towards a concrete grave that would take him farther away from her than even space was. He hadn't been able to fix that, and he hadn't been able to destroy the Chitauri on his own, and he hadn't known how.

In all honesty, that was how she felt whenever she thought about New York. She'd been out of control of her life far too many times for her liking, the first time starting when her parents had strapped her into a chair and told her they were going to give her an injection. Granted, that injection had wound up saving Grace's life thousands of times since then, but it was the first time that Grace had ever been out of control, and she'd spiraled from there on out. Survival skills were about control; she needed to control her life, herself, and the outcome of what was going to happen. So whenever she thought about New York, she felt a grip of panic around her heart, but she let that grip loosen because it was over, and the best thing she could do was learn from it and know not to make the same mistakes again.

She didn't remember falling asleep, something that was unusual for her. She was always so in tune to her body and her senses that she could estimate when she was going to slip into unconsciousness. So when she fell asleep and dreamed about eating tacos on a beach in Venice, she wasn't all that aware of what was happening around her in the physical world as she slept.

Tony, on the other hand, was not having pleasant dreams. For the millionth time since that invasion, he dreamed about falling from space, a comet soaring towards the Earth. He was reliving it all over again. Fear and panic overwhelmed his senses and his thoughts as he realized that he was losing consciousness. Grace. Grace. Her eyes, her amber eyes were the only things he could see as the nuke hit the ship and exploded. Grace's strange, light eyes.

He didn't feel his muscles tensing, jolting as the memories played back in his unconscious brain. Grace instantly woke up, the movement of his jerking body sending alarms to the sensors in her brain.

"Tony," she said, her voice low and raspy from lack of use during sleeping. Urgently, she put her hand on him to shake him awake. His back was pressed firmly against the front of her body, and he didn't seem to register her contact on him or her voice in his ear. He'd had nightmares before, and Grace had always been able to wake him up.

"Tony. Tony!" Her voice got louder with each intonation of his name. Suddenly, she sensed something grabbing at her in the dark, but she was too late. Her brain was drunk with sleep, and that always meant her body wasn't quite as up to par as her senses and her mind were. An iron fist closed around her hand and pushed her back into the bed. The white-blue of the eyes burned her, and she gasped. A white-hot flash burned her nerves, and her irises went black, signaling that she had switched into survival mode. In a flash, she was up, and she tried to disarm it, but she was unsuccessful. It had her on her back on the floor, and its hand was raised, the repulsor charging.

"Power down!" Tony's voice came from off to her side, and the suit released her. The repulsor charge died, and the suit went to sleep. Grace found that she was lying on the floor shaking violently as she realized how off her game she'd been and how close she'd been to being annihilated by one of Tony's beloved creations he'd ironically created to keep her safe. Tony smashed the suit, and it broke to pieces, one of them bouncing to where she was. She picked up and held it in her hand.

"I must have called it in my sleep," Tony said. She sensed him coming to her, his arms outstretched, reaching for her, and before she could stop herself, her instincts reacted, and she'd flipped him onto the floor so that she was over him. He was on his back staring at her with wide eyes. Her fist was raised, the piece of the suit ready to be used as a weapon, and she stared down at him. He would never be able to get used to the deep, empty blackness of her eyes whenever she went into survival mode. The amber was strange enough to deal with, but the black was completely unusual, and it meant that she would kill him if she so felt the need to.

"Grace, honey," he said quietly and softly, as if he were talking to a terrified child, "it's me. You're safe. You're ok. You're safe, Grace."

He knew she could hear him because her grip on the piece in her hand loosened the slightest bit, and she blinked, as if she were listening to him speak for the first time. Her head tilted to the side, and she stared at him.

"You're safe. Nothing's going to hurt you. I'm here with you. You're safe." He repeated the words over and over because that was one of the only things that could calm her down; she needed to be reminded that she was safe. The thought crossed his mind that she easily could kill him right here and now with only a twist of her hands around his head, but he wasn't afraid. He believed with all his heart that Grace wouldn't hurt him. Recognition crept into her face, and even in the dark of the room, he could see her black eyes beginning to lighten to their customary golden color. She dropped the piece in her hand, and she quickly stood up, covering her mouth with her hands. Tony eased up off the floor and turned a light on.

"Grace—" he said, and she shook her head violently. Her whole body was shaking, and she kept shaking her head furiously.

"That's not supposed to happen," he said. "I'll recalibrate the sensors. Are you ok? Can we just—uh—just let me—just let me catch my breath. Hey, don't…don't go. Alright? Grace…"

"I'm going to sleep in another room," Grace spoke, her words shaky and hesitant. "Tinker with that."

"Grace—"

"Tony, I love you, but this…" Grace gestured to the suit, "I can't do this."

Before he could say anything, she'd gone out the door, and he was left by himself. Tony put his head in his hands and wondered why it was that she was always walking out the door because of him. His entire musculature ached to run after her and hold her and kiss her and beg her to come back to bed, but he knew that any attempts would be pointless; once Grace made up her mind, she made up her mind, and there was no way he'd be able to convince her to come back into their bed tonight. He wondered if she were in the bedroom just next door where she'd stayed when she'd first moved in those two and a half years ago when she'd come to monitor him and make sure he didn't do anything to kill himself.

Running a hand through his hair in frustration, he lay back down and closed his eyes, trying in vain to capture sleep he would be chasing all night.

* * *

Grace wasn't able to go back to sleep. She lay still in the bed, as if she were paralyzed. Her nerves had calmed down, and she was herself again, but she was still painfully on edge as she always was after she switched into survival mode. Part of her felt guilty for leaving Tony alone, especially after the night that they'd shared together, but she wouldn't have been able to have stayed in that room. She was too jittery, too alert. Besides, she knew that Tony wasn't at fault for the suit going off the handle like that, but still. It just wasn't in her blood to stay somewhere when she was in danger. She wasn't on the job, and this was different. She had the option to leave, and so she'd taken it.

She let out a sigh and stared at the ceiling, torn between hating herself and trying to calm down enough to go to sleep, even though she knew that realistically she wasn't going to be able to sleep at all. Nonetheless, she closed her eyes and breathed deeply as she tried to calm her mind and her nerves. Thoughts threatened to overcrowd her mind, but she forced herself to keep a clear, blank brain. She'd done too much damn thinking in the past few days, and she just wanted to relax.

An hour passed by, and she sensed Tony's movement down the hall. She opened her eyes and sat up. Something was wrong. Sure enough, Tony burst through the door, a frantic look on his face.

"Happy," he said. One word.

"What?" Grace asked. Quickly, she leapt out of bed and followed him down the hall to their room. He was practically running, and Grace had a hollow feeling deep in the pit of her stomach that something was horribly wrong.

"There was another Mandarin attack, and Happy's in the hospital. I just got a call. I was listed as his emergency contact." Tony's voice was short and clipped as he spoke. He was dressed more quickly than Grace was. Her heart was paralyzed, but she physically gave no sign as she moved along. She hurriedly pulled a loose flowy tunic shirt on and a pair of skinny jeans and sandals. Briefly, she wondered how her hair looked, but she didn't spend time on it. Tony was clearly antsy, wanting to get out the door, and she just took what was necessary. A sick feeling grew in her stomach as she repeated Tony's words in her head. There'd been a Mandarin attack. Happy had been injured in a Mandarin explosion.

She'd been aware of the Mandarin attacks since they'd been happening, and she knew a lot more than Tony even did about them. SHIELD had been preparing a mission to find the terrorist, and she'd requested to be sent on the mission because it was dangerous, and she knew that she met all of the qualifications in order to be assigned to this. These were all things Tony was unaware of; he had no idea that she knew all of this inside information, and he had no idea that she'd requested this specific mission. In the back of her mind, she wondered how much more fucking perfect the timing had been. Her blood boiled, but she was calm on the outside, refusing to let Tony know what she was thinking, but really, Tony was so absorbed in his own thoughts and worries that he wouldn't have thought twice about her.

Happy.

"Do you want me to drive?" she asked. Tony shook his head tersely as he sped down the hall towards the front door. Grace had no choice but to follow him. If he was going to act like a maniac, she was going to be there along with him.

* * *

The reality of the situation didn't hit Grace until she was standing in Happy's room with her arms folded over her chest, and the unshed tears stinging the back of her eyes so violently that she had an idea of what a killer bee attack must have been like. Happy was in a state that she'd never seen him in before, and truthfully, she hadn't expected his condition to be as bad as it was, a fact that was stupid. She had the inside information on the Mandarin attacks, and people didn't survive. Happy was the first one to survive. She didn't know why she was so surprised to see all of these tubes going in and out of him, cuts and bruises and burns mapping his face.

Her gold eyes stared harshly at him as she blinked back everything she was feeling. Tony was off to her right, sitting in a chair. He'd offered it to her, had even tried forcing her to take the chair, but she'd turned him down. She just wanted to stand. They'd been there for hours in real time, but it felt like they'd only been there for five minutes. Everything was surreal to Grace, and she could barely even blink to focus.

She sensed the nurse walking in behind her, and she stepped out of the way.

"Miss Marks, is there anything I can get you?" the nurse asked. Grace pushed a smile onto her face and shook her head.

"No, thank you," she replied. "I'm ok."

The nurse smiled back at her and checked Happy's IV. She hadn't noticed Tony sitting in the chair in the dark, but Tony had definitely seen her. His dark chocolate eyes scrutinized the nurse as she walked over towards the TV.

"Hi," he spoke up suddenly.

"Oh!" the nurse gasped in surprise. He grimly smiled at her from the darkness and halfway waved.

"Do you mind leaving that on?" he asked.

"Sure." The nurse gave a tiny, unsure laugh, trying to cover how truly startled she'd been to see Tony sitting there so silently. Grace wondered what it must be like to be startled by something. As far back as she could remember, she'd never been startled by anything. Then again, she'd received her injection when she was so young that she didn't have many memories from before then, and she'd lived her entire life basically being able to sense everyone and everything the instant she entered a room. Her amber eyes were so carefully tuned that they could see every muscle tensed in the nurse's body as she tried to calm herself from the scare of seeing Tony Stark arise from his dark corner.

Tony stood up and walked a few steps in towards the middle of the room, looking up at the TV. The circle of blue light in the middle of his chest illuminated his form against the dark of his shirt, blurred with the darkness of the room.

"Sunday nights. PBS. _Downton Abbey_." His eyebrows were knit together as he spoke, as if he were unsure of what he was saying. "That's his show."

He was silent.

"He thinks it's elegant," Grace said quietly. Tony's eyes met hers, and for the first time in several hours, he seemed to register that she was there, that he wasn't alone in this. Taking in what she'd said, he nodded in agreement, his face still looking confused and unsure of himself.

"One more thing. Make sure everyone wears their badges. He's a stickler for that sort of thing. Plus my guys won't let anyone in without them." Tony began backing out of the room, and he glanced over at Grace again. He gestured with his head for her that he was ready to go, and she looked back at Happy in the bed. She pressed the heel of her palm to her mouth and smiled into it.

"He's supposed to give me away," she said with a little laugh, but the laugh ended in a small sob, and she found that she was wiping tears away. She sensed Tony walk over to her and put his arm around her. She felt her body respond to him by putting one foot in front of the other as he lead her out the door. Much to her relief, she was able to pull herself back together as they walked towards the exit of the hospital.

"The paparazzi," she said wearily, a hint of cautiousness creeping into her voice. Tony slowed for a moment, and he paused, staring at the awaiting cameras, reporters, and lights outside.

"Stay close to me. I've got you," he said. He knew that she could handle herself well, but there was always the concern that if it were a bad day, and one of the photographers or reporters got too close to Grace and bumped her, it could end up in some bad publicity and lawsuits. So he always formed a protective shell around her whenever they had to face the media. Mentally, he cursed each and every single fucking one of them. They had no fucking business being here, and he hated them for being there when they should've been elsewhere.

He pushed open the door and began walking, his arm wrapped protectively and firmly around Grace. The second he walked outside, people were swarming him. Snippets of voices and conversations filled his ears, his and Grace's names being launched at him from all directions. He could only imagine how stressful facing the photographers and reporters was for Grace; with her super sonic hearing, she was probably picking up everything that they were all saying. He quickly glanced at her and noticed that she was keeping her face downwards, her light gold eyes drawn away from everyone. She was usually so uncharacteristically open with the media, always smiling and willing for a picture or a quick question that to see her so openly withdrawn, it was almost unnatural. He knew that her openness with the media was a defense mechanism. Always thinking about how to survive in the world, she'd made it so that by being friendly and open with the media, they wouldn't see her as mysterious, someone they'd pry into to discover all her dirty secrets. If Grace gave them what they wanted, they would lose some curiosity about her, and Tony had to admit that she was right in her methods.

"Mr. Stark! Miss Marks! Hi, there! Our sources are telling us that all signs are pointing to another Mandarin attack. Anything else you can tell us?" A blonde reporter came up, shoving the microphone in Tony's face. Instinctively, he pulled Grace in tighter to keep her protected from all the shoving and invasive movements that jostled her about and could possibly startle her.

"Miss Marks, are you going to step in and try to find the Mandarin?" Another reporter asked. Grace showed no signs of hearing, keeping her eyes and head turned down towards the ground.

"Hey, Mr. Stark. When is somebody gonna kill this guy?" A male reporter made Grace's head shoot up. Both she and Tony stopped and turned around. The reporter noticed he'd gotten their attention. "I'm just saying."

"Is that what you want?" Tony asked darkly, his voice low and quiet. "Here's a little holiday greeting I've been wanting to send to the Mandarin. I just didn't know how to phrase it until now. My name is Tony Stark, and I'm not afraid of you. I know you're a coward. So I've decided that you just died, pal." Tony whipped his signature sunglasses off. His dark eyes blazed into the camera that the reporter held in his face. "I'm gonna come get the body. There's no politics here. It's just good, old-fashioned revenge. There's no Pentagon. It's just you and me. And on the off chance you're a man, here's my home address: 10880 Malibu Point, 90265. I'll leave the door unlocked. That's what you wanted, right?"

Lightning quick, Tony reached out, grabbed the reporter's phone, and threw it hard at the brick wall. The phone shattered. Tony whipped around to glare at the offending reporter.

"Bill me," he snapped. Leading Grace around to the passenger door, he opened it and closed it as she got in. He didn't feel the burn of her glare until he got in the car and began driving away. The silence was so thick between the two of them that he felt he could cut it with a fucking diamond. The longer he drove, the more he realized what he'd just done, and the more he realized the implications of what he'd just done. The adrenaline was wearing off, and now he just felt plain fucking exhausted.

The drive home was silent, and Tony knew that the storm was about to begin.

* * *

Grace sat stiff in the passenger's side as Tony sped along the roads leading up to their house. She'd sat still and silent the entire ride home because she was furious. What could she say to Tony that he didn't already know? She knew he knew that he'd fucked up, and that was why he hadn't said anything yet. Her fury was heavy, lying on top of the two of them until she felt like she couldn't breathe. The familiar sight of the Stark mansion came into view as Tony pulled up into the driveway. Without saying anything, and without waiting for him, she opened the door and marched into the house before he'd barely come to a complete stop.

"Jarvis," she barked out. "We're on total lockdown mode."

"Miss?" Jarvis asked, the confusion evident in his voice.

"Google what Tony just did, and you'll see why," she snapped back. She sensed Tony approaching the door, then opening and shutting it.

"Jarvis, we're on—"

"—total lockdown mode. Yes, sir, Agent Marks just suggested that I Google why, and I must agree that the highest security efforts be employed," Jarvis said, cutting Tony off. Tony's dark eyes flicked over to Grace, and he saw her leaning against the back of the couch, her mouth twisted, but her face characteristically blank.

"I'm sorry," he blurted out. That was usually the best way to approach an angry Grace. She folded her arms across her chest and kept her hard stare on him.

"What the fuck were you thinking?" she snapped harshly at him. He visibly winced as the sharpness of her syllables slapped him across the face. Everything was shot to hell. His relationship with Grace, the Mandarin, Happy…nothing was going the way it was fucking supposed to, and Tony didn't know what the fuck to do.

"You know I have to do it," he said. "I'm sorry. Honey, I am, but I've got to."

"Do you realize the risk you've just put us at? You gave the entire nation your fucking address. Tony, that's _our _fucking address! I'm a fucking SHIELD agent, and you just gave away my position!" she shouted. Tony couldn't remember a time that she'd ever shouted at him. She'd gotten plenty angry before, but her voice had always been low, quiet, almost threatening. But she was shouting at him, the tone of her voice laced with fury and panic.

"I can't sit by and not do anything," he responded.

"I don't even fucking care about that, Tony. I of all people know what it means to take action, but this is too much. You gave away our home address so that anyone can access it. Not only have you put yourself at risk, but you've put_ me _at risk." Her voice shook as she spoke. Tony's chest tightened as the thought sank in. He'd been worried that she was mad at him because he'd challenged the Mandarin. No. She was mad because he'd compromised her own safety not just to the Mandarin, but to every enemy on the entire globe who wanted her dead. He wasn't stupid; he knew that she was one of SHIELD's best agents for a reason, and he was painfully aware of the fact that many extremely dangerous people wanted Grace Marks to be wiped out.

"I fucked up," he said, attempting to remain calm.

"Yeah. You did. We're not staying here. I'm going to pack stuff for us, and then we're fucking leaving," she said. He shifted uneasily, and she saw him. Her eyes bored into him, and she physically dared him to say anything. Frustrated, he ran a hand through his dark hair, causing it to stick up.

"I'll get _you_ out of here," he said. "I have to stay."

"No. That's not an option, Tony," Grace snapped in response.

"Yes, it is. You're going to get out of here, and I'm going to stay and take care of the Mandarin. He'll be coming at any time, and I'm going to be here to be ready for him."

"No. You're coming. If you don't go, I don't go, and I'm leaving, so you're leaving with me. We're both going." Grace turned and whipped out of the room before he could say anything in protest. She would do what she wanted anyway, and he knew he didn't have a choice. He heaved an angry sigh and moved down to his lab to begin researching how the fuck he was going to destroy the Mandarin. First, he needed to figure out what had happened to Happy.

As Tony began setting up, ordering Jarvis to scan the site of the explosion and Happy's position, he realized how much he wanted Grace down there working with him. He easily could've used her eyes on the situation, and he very much wanted to have Jarvis call her down into the lab, but the attempt would be useless. If he knew his fiancée, she would be upstairs furiously packing bags for the both of them, refusing to do anything but that. Her survival instinct was probably on overload, and she was probably on the very edge of holding it all together. Absentmindedly, he rubbed his hand across his chest to appease the ache of everything accumulating in his solar plexus. This was a big fucking change, and he had to get used to it.

* * *

"The heat signature is remarkably similar. Three thousand degrees Celsius."

Tony's brain was on hyper speed. He'd been at work for God knew how long, and he was making connections. Rose Hill, Tennessee. He studied the picture in front of him and squinted, narrowing his brain in on the information.

"That's two military guys. Too much coincidence." A voice said behind him. Tony leapt out of his skin as Grace easily and fluidly leapt up onto his perch with him. His heart was pounding so loudly Grace could probably hear it, and he had to forcibly slow his breathing. Really, he should've been used to Grace just coming out of nowhere and surprising him like that, but it always did seem to take him by surprise whenever she did. She was so damn quiet. Fuck SHIELD for making her so quiet. He also sent a fuck you to her special abilities of being able to leap so high with little to no effort.

Her amber eyes were focused in front of her, not wandering over towards him. Her face was relatively blank, a tiny bit of concentration showing on her forehead as she examined all of the information around her. Tony didn't notice how tense his muscles had gotten since she'd shown up; she could be in any kind of mood, and really, the last time they'd been together hadn't been that pleasant, so he was nervous about how she was going to be.

"How long have you been listening in?" he asked.

"Long enough," she replied smoothly. "I finished packing our bags, and I thought I'd come down here and see what you were doing." Her voice was easy and smooth, lilting over the vowels and consonants with fluidity as she spoke. She still wouldn't train her amber eyes on him, but she didn't appear to be angry. Then again, she never fucking appeared to be anything because her damn face rarely gave anything away.

"You think it's a Mandarin attack?" Tony asked, deciding not to press anything serious with her. Her lips twitched into an almost-smile, and she narrowed her eyes the tiniest bit as she observed all of the information on the tech boards. She could feel Tony's apprehension, and she knew he was nervous, but she also knew he genuinely did want to know her opinion on the whole matter, so she wouldn't push anything. Besides, she was tired of fighting with him. She was still fucking furious, but now wasn't the time to talk about it.

"I think it's worth looking into," she answered. "There's something too…too coincidental about it. I don't believe in coincidences."

"It's settled," Tony replied swiftly. "Ever been to Tennessee, Jarvis?"

"Creating a flight plan for Tennessee," Jarvis answered, always one step ahead. Grace frowned at the sound of his voice, and she finally turned to look at Tony, who had just cleared away his tech. Her eyes didn't burn into his skull the way they usually did whenever she was mad, and he found that he could easily gaze back at her. The confusion was written across her face, settling into the sharp angles and curves that made her look like Grace.

"I thought you weren't leaving," she said.

"Well, I'm not leaving until after I get you taken care of," he answered. Her lips immediately formed a thin, hard line in anger. _So much for not having this fight now_, she thought snarkily to herself. A deep sharpness struck her in her lungs as she breathed slowly. Why was it that whenever she was around Tony now, all she felt was pain?

"You don't have to take care of me," she replied tersely.

"Look, you said it yourself that I put you in danger. Ok. I did. I put you in a shit ton of danger, and you can't stay here. You're also not coming to look for the Mandarin with me because it's too risky at this point. We're going to find you somewhere to lay low for a while. That's the only safe option I see for you at this point." Anger flared up in Tony's brown eyes, and Grace blinked hard when she saw it. She hadn't expected this kind of response from him, and, well, she also hadn't expected him to have a valid point. Every bone in her body wanted to go with him, but her brain was telling her to run and hide. She folded her arms across her chest, closing herself off from him.

Suddenly, she sensed that the doorbell was about to ring, and she tilted her head, her eyebrows furrowed together. Tony gazed at her in curiosity, noticing the sudden change in her body language, and then the doorbell rang. Irritated, Tony shot around a fierce look as if Jarvis himself could see the heat of the billionaire's glare. His eyes made contact with the security camera so that he could see who was outside his door. Despite how annoyed Grace was with Tony, she couldn't help finding his expression funny, but she smothered the smile that threatened to expose itself across her mouth.

"Are we still at ding-dong? We're supposed to be on total," he banged on his perch to make his point clear, "security lockdown. Come on, I threatened a terrorist. Who is that?" He glared at the view on the camera, completely ignoring Grace, though she barely noticed because she was on edge as well. Her nerves were alight, just waiting for the wrong move to send her into survival mode.

"There's only so much I can do, sir, when you give the world's press your address," Jarvis replied in his usual monotone. Grace stifled another smile as Tony leapt off the perch. She followed him and then stood still as she saw what he was doing. Normally, she would've accused him of being a show off, but this time she stood back, her arms still folded and nodded approvingly.

"That can work, too."

* * *

Tony wasn't taking chances, and so when he walked into his foyer to face this guest, he was wearing his suit, and he was more than surprised to see who was standing there. A long face with brown, wavy hair peered back at him as all kinds of memories flooded back to him. Talk about a blast from the past. The shock flooded his blood stream, but he kept his face calm in such a way that Grace would've been proud had she been standing there with him.

"Right there's fine," he intoned through his face plate. A moment of silence passed between the two as they stood stock still staring at each other. "You're not the Mandarin. Are you? Are you?" His face plate moved upwards, and his face was revealed to her. Her expression changed from that of apprehensive and nervous to amused and slightly disgusted.

"You don't remember," she said with a smirk and a sharp, quick laugh. "Why am I not surprised?"

"Don't take it personally. I don't remember what I had for breakfast."

"Gluten-free waffles, sir," Jarvis interjected.

"That's right." Tony didn't miss a beat.

"Okay, look, I need to be alone with you, someplace not here. It's urgent." Her wide brown eyes looked mildly panicked, and Tony was instantly filled with suspicion. He squinted his eyes at her as if he were examining her more thoroughly while also not being able to believe what she was offering.

"Normally, I'd go for that sort of thing, but now I'm in a committed relationship," he said, turning around and walking further into the living room of his house. "It's—" He was cut off by large suitcases landing in front of him. Goddamn, that woman of his had perfect timing.

"With her," he completed drily, staring at the suitcases and noticing for the first time that they'd been quite close to hitting him. Goddamn her aim, too, he thought. She was doing that to make a statement, and he knew that that was what she was doing.

"Tony! Is somebody there?" Grace innocently called from where she was. He suppressed the smile on his face; she knew damn well that someone was there, and she was playing coy. She probably was also able to pick up that this woman had had a thing with Tony in the past, and she hadn't even been in the room with the two of them. Grace was good at what she did, being able to pick up on signs and senses and all that jazz. He mentally grinned, knowing full well what she was doing.

"Yeah, it's Maya Hansen." He stepped out of his suit to talk to Grace like a human instead of a robot. He turned and caught Maya's stunned face, surprised that he knew who she was. He always loved giving the element of surprise. "Old botanist pal that I used to know, barely."

He could hear Grace walking down the stairs, and he quickly moved in a little closer to Maya, a thought suddenly crossing his mind that made him panic to the very depths of his soul.

"Please don't tell me there's a 12 year old kid waiting that I've never met," he said quietly and sincerely.

"He's 13," Maya replied evenly. Tony jerked sharply at her words, not wanting to believe them, but then she grinned at him. "No, I need your help."

"But, what for? Why now?" He silently sent up a prayer to the fertility gods that his sperm had not been obstinate enough to find their way to Maya's eggs. Thank Christ he didn't have to explain anything to Grace when their relationship was already rocky enough.

"Because I read the papers, and frankly, I don't think you'll last the week," she said smoothly. Tony had to give it to her that at least she was honest.

"I'll be fine," he said, though, refusing to let her ruin the mojo he'd been talking himself up to having over the past few hours. Besides, admitting that Maya was right was admitting that Grace was right, and that would mean admitting that he was in far over his head in all aspects of the phrase.

"I'm sorry, with Happy in the hospital, I didn't know you were expecting guests," Grace said easily as she swept into the room.

"We weren't," Tony mumbled as she came up next to him. Her amber eyes took in the sight of Maya without having to even do that typical catty female body scan that all women did whenever they saw their "competition." Grace wasn't that kind of person, anyway. Instead, she smiled at Maya brightly.

"Hi, I'm Grace!" she introduced herself as if Maya didn't know her, even though everyone in the room knew that Maya definitely knew her Grace was. Maya took Grace's extended hand and shook it.

"It's nice to meet you. I was very much into your work before you retired," Maya said.

"Oh, thank you. It's so nice to hear that. So how did you and Tony meet?" Grace asked, completely diplomatically. She was asking because she was actually interested, not because she was trying to make things awkward or blame Tony for anything. Well, she did enjoy seeing him slightly uncomfortable because that was funny more than anything, but she really did want to know how they knew each other. Her light gold eyes turned back to Tony, awaiting a response.

"She's not—well—it—" Tony was floundering desperately.

"It was just one night," Maya said bluntly with a matter of fact nod. A smile split across Grace's face, much to Tony's surprise.

"Oh, God, I love honest people," Grace said.

"Yep," Tony butted in. "It was a great night."

"Well, not that honest," Grace said with a smirk on her face. She directed her attention back to Maya. "Well, you saved yourself a world of pain."

"What?" Tony turned to Grace with a genuinely confused look on his face, mingling with disbelief.

"Trust me." Grace turned back to Tony. "We're going out of town. You _and _me."

"Ok, we've been through this," Tony started. "Nope."

"Yep!"

"The man says no."

"Immediately and indefinitely. Oh, excuse me? The _man _says no? _The man says no_? You wanna go, Tony?"

"No, Grace. I don't. We have a guest who probably does not want to see you break my ribs for the second time."

"Are you seriously bringing that up again? It was an accident, and you didn't pad up well enough!"

"You know, great idea, Grace. Let's go!" Maya interrupted.

"I'm sorry, that's a terrible idea," Tony snapped at her. "Please don't touch her bags."

"Tony, this is how normal people behave," Grace said imploringly to him, demanding his attention on her.

"I can't protect you out there," Tony said stubbornly.

"Tony, I have like, a thousand black belts from my _years as a martial artist_," Grace said with emphasis, making sure that the point was across that she was a deadly assassin who worked for a super secret branch of the government. She always won with that argument, and Tony hated it.

"Is—is that normal?" Maya asked. She pointed towards the giant shark in the corner.

"Sadly, that is very normal," Grace quipped. Tony had the opposite reaction, seeming to only get angrier. She rolled her eyes as he freaked out. Tony Stark: Iron Drama Queen.

"Yes, this is normal! It's a big shark! Relax about it!"

"Jesus, Tony," Grace sighed.

"I got this for you," he said.

"I'm aware of that."

"You still haven't even told me you liked it."

"I don't like it." The words spilled out of Grace's mouth before she could stop herself, and her eyes widened as she realized what she'd said. The irritation had just been building up with each passing second; having Maya show up wanting God knows what, Tony freaking out and refusing to leave, and now the damn shark. Tony's eyebrows shot up into his hairline.

"I asked you three—you don't like it." He threw his hands up.

"We are leaving the—" Suddenly, Grace stopped. Something felt very wrong, and she knew that something was about to happen. Tony saw her face instantly change, and he felt his muscles tensing up.

"Guys? Can we, um—do we need to worry about that?" Maya asked, pointing to the screen.

"Get out! Now!" Grace cried. "That's a bomb. Get out!"

In an instant, Grace's nerves burned white-hot, and she was in survival mode. This was danger, and for the first time, it was at her front door.


	5. No Mercy

**Shoutouts to bluemermaidpitch and byakuya7309 for reviewing!**

**Woooo I was able to get out a second chapter this week. I'm on a roll, guys! Anyway, here's another chapter. It's super long, but there's a lot of action, and Harley gets introduced.**

**I had another question about whether or not I'm going to write another story after this. Weeeeeeeell, that's where you guys come in! Please let me know what you'd like me to do once I've finished this story. Do you want another Tony/Grace? Do you want a continuation of Steve/Emma? A Budapest story? Let me know. However, I will be writing _Supernatural _fanfiction, so if you're interested in that, please feel free to check out my stories that I write for that. But again, let me know what you'd like because I'm writing not only for myself but for you guys.**

**Please please please review! I love to know your thoughts on what I write!**

* * *

Chapter 5

The missile hit before anyone could move. Time seemed to slow as the impact of it hit, and the house began to crumble. Grace's eyes, her irises now black, were shut tight as she was flung backwards by the force of the blow, feeling the pull of gravity on her. The sound was too loud, and the heat was too strong.

Tony saw her flying through the air, and even though she could survive a bullet to the head and a fall off of a two-story building, he did what he knew he had to. He called the suit. Piece by piece, it flew to Grace and began to expand and connect, protecting her inside. So the fuck what if she was angry about it? She could take care of herself, but she couldn't take care of a bomb, and he hadn't been lying when he'd told her that he was going to protect her.

The wall appeared behind him, and he smacked off of that and landed with a thud on the ground. He'd lost a visual of Grace, but he knew she'd be ok in the suit. Stunned, his head was spinning, and he was seeing vision of stars. Amidst all the chaos and the crumbling, he suddenly realized that he now understood how the cartoon characters felt whenever they saw stars spinning around their heads. Gathering his senses, he winced and forced himself to sit up. He caught sight of Maya lying flat on the ground, unconscious. _Jesus Christ, don't let her be dead_, he thought, panic sweeping his body. He'd never felt an emotional connection with Maya Hansen, but he sure as hell didn't want her dead. The force of what had just happened knocked him back onto his elbow, and he took a breath. In that moment, the ceiling began to crack. Tony swallowed hard as he stared up at it, not sure of what to do or where to go. As large concrete pieces began to fall, something moved in his line of vision, shielding his body from the falling debris. Grace. She was in the suit, and she was looking down at him, her arm above her head as she protected him. When it was safe, she flipped the faceplate up and looked at him, her now-black eyes searching into his intently. For a moment, he wasn't sure if she were going to hit him or grab him, but she did neither. She surprised him.

"I got you," she said, a tiny smirk hinting across her face.

"I got you first," Tony retorted. "Like I said we can't stay here." He scrambled to his feet, getting up and trying to reorient himself with everything around him. Fuck, he was dizzy, and the room was spinning, but he tried to pull himself together. Grace seemed to be looking at something in the distance, her face 100% blank and focused.

"What?" he asked.

"Move," she snapped, pushing him. "There are more coming."

Again, she was too late. Another missile hit the house, and Tony was sent flying. He hit into the couch and flipped over it, but he jumped up before Grace could come after him.

"Move! I'm right behind you!" he shouted to her. He saw her pause, unsure of whether to go with her true instincts, which were telling her to do what he said, or to go with what she wanted to do, and that was run to him and stay with him until she could get them both out safely. In a split second, her decision was made, and she began to run. Tony gathered enough of himself together to run behind her, but a crack began to widen in the middle of the living room, and he found that he was separated from her.

Grace stopped and turned, looking at the gap and then looking back at him. Instead of her calm, nonplussed face that she wore whenever she was in survival mode, a look of horror was plastered onto her sharp features.

"Get her. I'm gonna find another way out!" he shouted. When Tony looked back on this moment in future times, he would realize that this was the moment in which he lost her. The gap that spread between them widened and took her a little farther away from her, and he swallowed hard as he stared at her. In the middle of the roar, he could see her eyes pinned onto him, wide and unafraid but unwilling to leave him.

"Stop stopping. Get her. Get outside."

She stood still, unmoving.

"Grace, go!" he shouted again. And then she forced her legs and began to move. The faceplate slid down, and she ran to Maya, picking the woman up and easing her to her feet as she found consciousness again. Grace's brain was telling her to move, to get out of there. All of her survival instincts kicked in, and she was thinking of how she was going to escape with her life still inside her. Deep down, she sent a silent prayer to Tony for calling the suit to her; it was just one more thing that made her feel safe. A wall stood in their way, and Grace knew how she was going to get it down.

She lifted her hand and waited for the repulsor to come out. She'd watched Tony work enough times to know how his suits worked, and she was rewarded with a blast that knocked the wall and the glass behind it down. Dragging Maya behind her, she ran into the courtyard outside and dropped the woman on the ground. Her nerves were buzzing as she sensed more missiles being propelled towards their home. Instantly, she shot to her feet as the missile made contact with the house.

"Oh, my God. Tony!" she shouted, and she began running towards the structure that was formerly her home. She could feel the missiles striking the house as if they were striking her; that was how powerful the feeling was. Panic consumed her center as she could feel Tony inside the house, stumbling around. Breathing hard, a lump formed in the back of her throat. She couldn't just stand there while Tony was being pummeled to hell.

"Grace! Grace, don't!" Maya called after her.

Grace was good at ignoring instructions, and that was exactly what she did. She dashed back into the house, her blood pounding in her ears as she struggled to see through the hazy fog of crumbling walls and foundation. Tony. Where the fuck was he? She fought to keep her balance as she dashed further and further into the heart of it.

"Sir, Agent Marks is not clear of the structure. She has returned," Jarvis announced. She could hear Jarvis speaking.

"Jarvis, where is he?" she asked, speaking into the suit that surrounded her.

"Mr. Stark is against the window panes of what was once the living room window. Agent, I am going to have to ask you to remain outside. Mr. Stark needs the suit." If anything could've gotten Grace out of there, it was that. Her instinct was to go and drag him out herself, but she knew that she couldn't do that. It was too risky, and she knew it'd be better if Tony did it himself. She moved back outside, fighting against the continuing shakes and tremors of the deteriorating house.

It must have done the trick because pieces of the suit began flying off her and back into the dusty chaos that consumed Tony. The armor was ripped away from her, and really, she was glad. She needed Tony to have it right now so he could get the fuck out of her and come back to her. That's what he did. He promised. He would always come back to her.

And so, as Grace stood there watching her home fall to pieces and knowing that her fiancé was inside, she found herself feeling that overwhelming sense that everything was going to hell, and there was nothing she could do to stop it. However, this was worse than any feeling she'd had in New York because there was no indication that Tony was coming out of this. Normally, he would be out there with her, but he wasn't. He was still inside, and she watched as two helicopters were taken down.

"Is he still inside?" Maya asked, breathless beside her. Grace nodded stiffly, staring wide-eyed at the sky as the second helicopter fell to the ocean with a crash. Her heart felt as though it weren't even beating. Her chest was refusing to rise and fall with her inhales and exhales because that piece of her was still inside that house. The panic continued to rise in her throat, but she used all the fucking self-control she could muster to keep it down.

And then the final hit was made, and the house began to slide into the ocean. Grace stood frozen in pure horror as she watched it begin its descent into the water, no sign of Tony anywhere. Her hands covered her mouth, as if by holding a physical obstruction, she could smother the cry that threatened to escape. Horror flowed through her body, thicker than blood and any scent of fear. Tony was still inside, and it did not appear that he was coming out.

* * *

Tony was falling, swirling beneath the water as debris fell around him. Normally, he was levelheaded in situations like this; he was able to think about how to get out, and then he impulsively acted on those spur of the moment decisions. However, he couldn't think. Panic blinded and paralyzed his brain, and all he could do was flail about and hope that it got him somewhere because that was the best he could do. Grace, Jesus, was she ok? How odd it was for him to think about Grace's well being as he lay on the ocean floor, debris piling on top of him.

* * *

Grace ran through the remains of her house to the edge of the gaping cliff and stood at the very edge, feeling nauseated when she saw the remnants of everything sinking into the ocean.

"Tony!" she screamed. The ocean was consuming her life. She couldn't feel the wind whipping across her skin as she remained frozen on the edge of a feeling she couldn't quite process. Her body was numb, something that it had never been throughout her entire life. She was in tune with her senses that she felt more than what was comfortable, but over the years, she'd learned to dull that out until she needed it. But she couldn't feel anything. She felt nothing but the unbearable pressure in her chest that built with each inhalation she wasn't even aware she was taking. There was no sign of Tony.

* * *

Tony struggled with the wire that had somehow managed to wrap itself around his neck. He caught glimpse of the giant shark he'd gotten for Grace. It was now beaten up and soggy as it came down towards him. He finally got free and was attempting to get out, but concrete came crashing down on top of him. He struggled frantically, trying to get out, but his attempts were in vain. His arm was stretching, the only part of him that was really free.

"Sir, take a deep breath," Jarvis said calmly. Then the hand part of Tony's suit detached itself from the arm, leaving the water swirling around Tony's bare arm. Turning around and grabbing hold of the billionaire's hand, Jarvis pulled Tony out of the debris. A sigh of panicked relief came from Tony's mouth as the hand reattached itself to the rest of the suit, the repulsors firing up.

"Flight power restored," Jarvis announced, his voice still calm as ever. And Tony lost consciousness as he rocketed into the sky.

* * *

Maya walked up to Grace, unsure of what to do or say. She didn't know Tony Stark's fiancée at all, and she'd just watched the dark-haired woman lose the man she loved. Maya was at a loss, but she still walked towards her.

"Grace," she said softly. Grace's head snapped towards her, and Maya gasped when she saw Grace's black eyes. Taking a step back, she stumbled over some remaining debris, her eyes and mouth wide in shock at the woman's uncharacteristic eyes. As Grace stared at Maya, her eyes slowly lightened back to their usual amber. Seeing Maya look so freaked out and afraid reminded Grace that no one was in danger anymore. The helicopter had turned and flown away, its mission having been carried out.

"I know who you are," Maya said suddenly. "You're with SHIELD. That's why you were called in for the New York incident with the Avengers."

Grace stared at her and slowly nodded. Sirens in the distance blared, signaling the impending arrival of cops, firefighters, and eventually, the media. She was so focused on everything that was happening around her so that she wouldn't have to deal with what was happening inside her, she almost missed the sound of what seemed to be repulsors. Frowning, she turned over her shoulder, expecting to see Tony soaring through the air, but there was nothing. No Tony. He really was gone. And the disappointment hit her so sharply, she gasped and released the tears she'd been holding back. She sank down to the ground, her hands covering her face. She barely registered Maya coming up to her and placing her arm around her because Tony was gone.

* * *

"Sir? Sir!"

Tony was jolted awake by the sound of a frantic Jarvis and a dinging sound. Shit, what time was it?

"Alright, kill the alarm. I got it," he mumbled, forcing his eyes to open. His entire body was sore, and he had the unpleasant feeling that blood was trickling down his face. Yuck.

"That's the emergency alert triggered by the power dropping below 5%," Jarvis replied. Tony's eyes widened as he registered what Jarvis was saying, but by then, it was too damn late. The suit began to freak out all on its own.

"Oh," Tony muttered. Then he saw that he was going into a downward spiral, and there was a damn car right where he was about to land. "Oh!"

Tony Stark did not consider himself a screamer, but he definitely let out a scream as he fell out of the sky, bounced along the hard pavement of the road, smashed into some snow, tumbled through the woods and smacked into a shit ton of trees on the way before coming to a rest facedown in the snow. The suit was sparking and acting up, but Tony was still trying to get his bearings together. With great effort, he managed to flip himself over onto his back. He could see the stars and the tops of trees towering over him. Huh. This wasn't Malibu.

Gasping for breath, he reached up and pulled his faceplate off because, well, the suit didn't seem to be in much condition for it to automatically slide up. A piercing cold greeted his face as soon as the plate was lifted. Shit, that was _not _what he'd been expecting.

"It's snowing, right? Where are we, upstate?" he asked blearily.

"We are five miles outside of Rose Hill, Tennessee," Jarvis replied in that same smooth tone. Tony frowned, frustration and anger building and rising quickly to the surface.

"Why?" he angrily demanded. "Jarvis. Not my idea. What are we doing here?! This is thousands of miles away! I gotta get Grace. I gotta—"

"I prepared a flight plan. This was the location." Jarvis sounded so fucking pleased with himself that had the artificial intelligence been an actual human being, Tony would've punched that pleased look right off the bastard's face. No, no, no, no, no. This couldn't be happening. He couldn't be in motherfucking Tennessee right now when Grace was all the way back in California. Grace. Oh, shit, Grace. Who knew what she was doing? She probably thought he was dead. Fuck, she probably thought he was dead.

"Who asked you?" Tony sighed out in frustration. "Open the suit."

"I…I think I may be malfunctioning, sir," Jarvis said, worry suddenly filling the A.I.'s voice.

"Open it, J," Tony quickly demanded. Thankfully, Jarvis was still able to open the suit because sure enough, the suit opened, and Tony sat up with a grunt. The cold of the air cut into him, and he let out some shocked and very happy groans at the temperature around him.

"That's brisk!" he announced. He rubbed his hands together and blew his breath in between them. Deep down, he knew that those efforts to stay warm were futile because it was too damn cold, and honestly, rubbing his hands together and blowing on them wasn't going to keep his sorry ass warm. Noticing the pain in his left arm, he saw metal pieces he'd injected just yesterday sticking out from his skin. Grabbing some snow, Tony placed the cold against his skin, numbing the pain.

"Maybe I'll just cozy back up for a—"

"I actually think I need to sleep now, sir," Jarvis said weakly.

"Jarvis." Tony could hear the suit powering down, but he was gripped with panic again. He was out here alone, and he didn't have any way of getting anywhere. Jarvis was his only connection to anything around here. Jarvis would have the answers.

"Jarvis? Don't leave me, buddy." Tony was answered with silence. Swallowing the lump in his throat, he stood up and got to work, creating a way to drag the suit behind him as he walked. He had to get into town and make contact with Grace. She would be worried sick about him if she'd seen him project from the water. But if she hadn't, she would think he was dead, and he needed to let her know that he wasn't.

He should've known that Grace was always right. When she'd said that they were going to leave town, he should've just agreed with her and gone with it. But no. He had to refuse because of his own damn pride. _Yeah, well, look where that's gotten you_, he thought bitterly to himself: halfway across the country, completely alone without even Jarvis, and away from Grace. He had a lot of explaining and apologizing to do. Challenging the Mandarin may have been one of the most fucking stupid things he'd ever done. Grace had—of course—been right; not only had he endangered himself and their home, but he'd endangered her.

Tony wondered what she was doing right then. Was she making funeral arrangements? Was she talking to the cops? Had she gone into hiding with SHIELD? There were endless possibilities to what she could be doing, and Tony wanted to know because knowing would mean that he was with her, and that was what he wanted. Knowing Grace, she was probably taking refuge with SHIELD. The Mandarin could come back and try to kill her, and she needed to be safe. Hell, any one of SHIELD's enemies could come back and try to kill her since they now knew where he lived.

He heaved a sigh as he walked, dragging the suit behind him. He'd never realized how heavy it was until now. It was going to be a long five miles.

* * *

Tony would never be so happy to see a Texaco again in all his life. He was so thrilled to see it that he made the resolution to donate millions of dollars to Texaco because this was the first sign of civilization he'd seen in a long time. Sure enough, he could make out a phone in the distance, and he continued to trudge on.

When he was close, he dropped the suit and approached the wooden Indian that was standing outside the Texaco. He was so cold he didn't even check to see if anyone was watching, and he took the poncho off of the Indian. This kind of cold only proved to him why he'd chosen to stay in Malibu; he wasn't about the cold life, and thankfully, Grace wasn't either.

After he was secured in his cozy, brand new poncho, he went to the phone and casually hacked into it.

"Stark secure server now transferring to all known receivers," an electronic female voice said in his ear when he was done. Success. Not that he hadn't expected success because he was Tony Stark, and that was all he ever knew. He gazed fondly at the technology in front of him. Even if it wasn't his amazing Stark Tech, it was still a comfort to see it and know that it would work for him.

"Grace, it's me," he said into the phone. "I've got a lot of apologies to make and not a lot of time. So…first off, I'm so sorry I put you in harm's way. That was selfish and stupid, and it won't happen again. You were right. Also, it's Christmastime, and the shark's too big. Done. Sorry. And I'm sorry in advance because…I can't come home yet. I need to find this guy. You gotta stay safe, that's all I know. Don't try to come find me. Don't try to find the Mandarin on your own. Stay safe. I just stole a poncho from a wooden Indian. Grace…I love you, ok? Ok."

When he hung up the phone, he felt that more had disconnected than simply the phone line, but he swallowed his feelings down, and he trudged back out into the snow to find someplace to hole up.

* * *

And so, for the second time since he'd crash-landed in Rose Hill, Tennessee, Tony Stark felt as though he were saved when he came across a house and found that there was a garage. The thought that he was breaking and entering, technically two very illegal acts he was partaking in, barely crossed his mind because he was cold, and he had a lot of shit that he had to take care of. _Thank God for the axe outside_, he thought after he'd smashed open the door to the garage, dropping the suit inside, and releasing the axe outside on the ground.

Looking around, he surveyed the inside of the garage, assessing it. It wasn't quite the glory of his lab at home, but this would do. With a sharp pang, he remembered that his lab was gone. It was at the bottom of the ocean now. He shrugged it off and began hauling the suit over to the couch so that it could be comfortable. Jarvis had done a lot of hard work that evening and needed to rest.

"Let's get you comfy," Tony murmured as he sat down next to the suit and arranged it in what appeared to be a comfortable position. "You happy now?" He used his pointer finger to push Jarvis's head forward so it'd stop staring at him. Sighing, Tony eased into the couch and let everything sink in. So this had been a hell of a day. The couch wasn't even that comfortable, but it felt like heaven to the billionaire. Unfortunately, though, Tony knew he couldn't stay there forever. He had a lot he needed to take care of, and most of it had to do with making sure the Mandarin never took in another breath of air if he had anything to do about it. And if Tony was right, he would have plenty to do about it.

He adjusted the lamp above his arm and grabbed the tweezers, gingerly setting them against his skin to pull out the painful, protruding pieces. He was unaware of another presence in the room; he was completely oblivious to the awaiting threat that lurked behind him.

"Freeze!" A voice shouted. Tony looked up, more annoyed than fearful, and saw a kid standing in the doorway, a potato gun in his hands. The kid was wrapped in a flannel jacket and had a cap on his head. Curly blonde hair peeked out from under the cap, and the challenging look in his eyes showed that he meant business. For a brief second, he contemplated laughing it off, but he decided against it because he could tell that the kid was probably scared to death, and laughing at a scared kid wasn't a very nice thing to do.

"Don't. Move," the kid ordered. Tony set down the tweezers and held his hands up where the kid could see them.

"You got me," he said, giving into the kid. Silence filled the room as the kid wasn't sure what to say or do next. Tony could tell by the look on the thing's face that he hadn't been expecting Tony to give up so easily.

"Nice potato gun," Tony continued. "Barrel's a little long. Between that and the wide gauge, it's gonna diminish your FPS."

Without missing a beat, the kid aimed his gun upwards and fired at a glass bottle. The potato hit it, and the tinkling sound of exploding glass hitting the wood floor filled the tension of the room. Tony glanced over at it as it exploded, looked back at the kid, and lowered his hands.

"And now you're out of ammo," he said smartly. The kid gazed at him apprehensively, still holding the potato gun as if he could shoot Tony with it. He clearly wasn't trusting Tony, and honestly, Tony couldn't fucking blame him. Some dude showed up in his garage at night, he'd probably be pretty unfuckingtrusting, too.

"What's that thing on your chest?" the kid asked.

"It's a—uh—electromagnet." That hadn't been the question Tony had expected from the twerp, but ok. He could run with it. "You should know. You got a box of them right here." He reached over and thwacked the box with his fingers to prove his point.

"What does it power?" the kid asked. His eyes showed more curiosity than suspicion or fear now, but he was still clearly on guard, still unsure of what to make of Tony.

Tony surveyed the kid, wondering how the hell he was going to answer. _Ah, fuck it_, he thought, and he moved. He stood up and gestured back to the suit on the couch, flicking the lamp's illumination over towards the suit. Jarvis would appreciate the spotlight, Tony figured. That was the key that did it for the kid. He dropped his potato gun, and huge smile spread across his face, a gasp of surprise lighting his eyes up.

"Oh my God!" he excitedly exclaimed. "That…that's…is that Iron Man?" He tentatively took a few steps closer, looking shy and nervous now. Looking up at Tony, he pointed to the suit for confirmation.

"Technically, I am," Tony said smugly.

"Technically, you're dead." The kid approached him, pulled out a paper from his bag, and slapped it on Tony's chest for him to look at. With a tiny frown, Tony opened the paper and looked at it: **Mandarin Attack: Tony Stark Presumed Dead**.

"Valid point," he murmured.

"Does anyone know you're alive?" the kid asked. Tony's dark chocolate eyes flicked up to see the thing gazing at the suit as if it were the most magical thing alive. For a second, the kid reminded Tony of himself when he was younger. Everything mechanical like that had been fascinating to him, and he'd refused to rest until he'd figured out how it worked, how he could build one just like it, and how he could make it 30 times better.

"Uh, I don't know," Tony replied. "I called my fiancée and left a voicemail for her." The kid looked back at him at the mention of Tony's fiancée.

"Yeah! Yeah, Grace. Grace Marks," he said happily. "Does she think you're dead?"

"If she hasn't gotten my voicemail, then yeah, she probably thinks I'm dead." Tony ran a hand through his hair and pressed his lips together in a way that made him picture the last time he'd seen Grace doing that, just hours before when they'd been arguing about whether to stay or leave. He sighed.

"What happened to him?" the kid asked, redirecting his attention back to the suit. He'd crawled onto the couch and was up close examining it. Tony eyed the kid suspiciously, just daring him to touch it. Of course, the kid did, but whatever. It was pretty hard to break one of Tony's suits, and it wasn't even on so the kid couldn't accidentally explode anything.

"Life," he said, looking back down at the paper. "I built him. I take care of him." He bundled up the newspaper and tossed it down in frustration. "I'll fix him."

"Like a mechanic?" The kid looked at him, suddenly seeming more interested in Tony than he had been before. So that was what the kid wanted to do, Tony realized as he saw the interest in the kid's eyes.

"Yeah," Tony replied.

"Hmmm." The kid was thinking as he played with different parts of the suit. Tony could see the gears turning in the blonde boy's head as he looked hard and examined what was in front of him. "If _I_ was building Iron Man _and_ War Machine—"

"It's Iron Patriot now," Tony corrected. The boy's eyes widened.

"That's way cooler!" he exclaimed. Tony gave him a hard stubborn look in response.

"No, it's not," he retorted.

"Anyways, I would have added in, um, the retro…" The boy's voice trailed off as he tried to think of the right words. A lightbulb lit up in Tony's head, and he looked back at the boy, interest sparking his dark brown eyes.

"Retro-reflective panels?" he asked.

"To make him stealth mode," the boy finished.

"You want a stealth mode?"

"Cool, right?

"That's actually a good idea. Maybe I'll build one." The kid was messing around with one of the suit's fingers. "Not a good idea," he interjected, but it was too late. The finger had already come off. A fresh wave of frustration swept through Tony's body. He already had enough repairs to make to the suit, and now this was another one. He knew it'd be a simple fix, but it was the _principle _of the idea.

"Oops," the kid said guiltily.

"What are you doing? You're gonna break his finger? He's in pain. He's been injured. Leave him alone."

"Sorry," the kid replied, looking guilty.

"Are you?" Tony demanded. The kid looked up at him as though he felt bad, and then that made Tony feel bad for making the kid feel bad. Tony cursed Grace for having given him a conscience and worrying about making the kid feel bad. Actually, it was part of his own past. He'd done similar things like that when he'd been young and watching his dad work in the lab. If he'd touched something, and it'd broken, that'd been it for the day. Howard didn't take to that very well, and Tony didn't want to be that kind of person to this kid who was clearly very good with machines.

"Don't worry about it. I'll fix it," he said, suddenly changing his tone to less scary and more forgiving. "So, uh, who's home?"

"Well, my mom already left for the diner, and Dad went to 7-11 to get scratchers. I guess he won because that was six years ago."

Tony folded his arms across his chest and looked down at the kid.

"Hmm. Which happens. Dads leave. No need to be a pussy about it. Here's what I need." He looked off into the distance to recall his mental list of essential things. "A laptop, a digital watch, a cell phone, the pneumatic actuator from your bazooka over there, a map of town, a big spring, and a tuna fish sandwich."

"What's in it for me?" the kid asked smartly. Tony had to give it to him; always looking out for number one.

"Salvation. What's his name?" he asked casually.

"Who?" the kid asked, a confused expression settling into his features.

"The kid that bullies you at school. What's his name?"

"How'd you know that?" The kid suddenly changed from being challenging to that of looking ashamed and uncomfortable.

"I got just the thing," Tony said, avoiding the question on purpose. He crossed over to the suit and popped one compartment of it open. He pulled out what he was looking for and crossed back over to the boy. "This is a _piñata _for a cricket. I'm kidding. This is a very powerful weapon. Point it away from your face, press the button on top. It discourages bullying. Non-lethal. Just to cover one's ass. Deal?" He held it out to the kid, and when the thing tried reaching for it, he pulled it away just out of grasp. "Deal? What do you say? Deal?"

"Deal," the kid said happily, quickly agreeing to it. Tony held it out to him again, and the boy took it, examining it carefully.

"What's your name?" Tony asked.

"Harley. And you're…"

"The mechanic. Tony. You know what keeps going through my head? 'Where's my sandwich?'"

* * *

If the physical world as she knew it blew up right then and there, Grace would still welcome it more than what she was experiencing and had been experiencing all evening. She stood on the edge of the cliff again, staring out into the ocean as she struggled to process everything that had happened. It didn't seem real. She'd gone through a lot of crazy shit in her life, but today definitely took the cake for things that didn't seem to be real. Reporters had been after her left and right, wanting to know what had happened, where was Tony, did she know anything? She'd answered thousands of questions from all kinds of officials. She was tired. She just wanted to curl up in her bed and go to sleep and never wake up. Too bad she didn't have a bed anymore.

She held one of Tony's destroyed suit helmets in her hands. It had a giant gash across the faceplate, but it was still something that he'd made. He'd touched it, crafted it. He'd taken the time to plan it and think about how perfect he could make it. Ever since she'd sat in his lab and watched him work all those years ago when she'd just been there to monitor him, she'd been amazed by his genius. These years later she didn't think he was any less of a genius; he'd always continued to surprise her.

It was strange trying to figure out what tense to think of him in. She refused to think of him in the past tense, but then she got disgusted with herself; if Tony were actually dead, she didn't want to be one of those women who refused to accept it. If Tony were dead, he was dead, and she needed to accept that. But every time she tried to think like that, a deep pull in her heart made her stop because it was too fucking painful.

As she held the helmet, she could barely feel the weight or the coolness of the metal. She'd been numb ever since she'd watched her house slide into the ocean, taking Tony with it. Bringing it up to eye level, she rested her forehead against it, breathing softly and gently as she stared into where Tony's eyes should've been behind the faceplate. Suddenly, she heard a beeping from inside the helmet and saw a red light flashing. That meant that there was a message waiting. Curious, she pressed the button and slid the helmet on.

As soon as she pressed the button, the helmet whirred to life. Light turned on, and there was a retinal scan that verified she was Grace and ok to be inside the helmet. She gasped as she saw everything come to life around her. Of course, she'd been in the suit before, and she'd worn the helmets to his suits plenty of times, but this time she was extra appreciative of it, of the thought and care that Tony had made in making this.

"Stark secure server. Retinal scan verified," a cool female mechanical voice announced.

"Grace, it's me." Tony's voice filled the helmet. Grace gasped, floored to hear the sound of his voice. He was alive. He was ok. Tears flooded her amber eyes as she shut them, letting the reverberant tone of his familiar voice fill her ears. "I've got a lot of apologies to make and not a lot of time. So…first off, I'm so sorry I put you in harm's way. That was selfish and stupid, and it won't happen again."

She listened to his message the entire way through, tears running down her face because Tony Stark was not dead. He was very much alive, and he was ok.

"Grace…I love you, ok? Ok."

"Ok," she whispered back into the helmet. She mentally kicked herself for the cliché romantic moment, but she didn't even care. She'd never felt more relieved in her life, and she wasn't gong to let anything like a cliché moment stop her.

She listened to the message two more times before she took the helmet off. Maya was still around here somewhere, refusing to leave Grace, though Grace figured that it was less about caring about Grace and more just wanting to talk about the Mandarin, but whatever. Scanning through the crowd, she found Maya sitting with some medics who were checking on her head wound again. She'd obtained a minor cut during the explosion, but she was otherwise ok.

Grace made a beeline for her.

"Maya, can I talk to you?" she asked, gesturing away from everyone with her head. Frowning, Maya nodded and got up, following behind Grace. When they were far enough away from everyone, Grace turned towards her, all business. Her blood was rushing with adrenaline, and she felt like she was high. Hell, she felt like she could jump off that damn cliff and fucking fly.

"He's alive," she said quietly. Maya's eyes widened, and Grace nodded. "I know. I just received a message from him on the helmet. Long story short, he's alive, and he's ok. We have to get somewhere safe, though. We have plans to make."

"How—how did he survive that?" Maya asked incredulously. Grace gave a short laugh and a shrug, pushing her dark hair back behind her ear.

"I'd love to know the answer to that, myself," she said. "I'm gonna fucking kill him when I see him." Her smile said the opposite thing, and she knew she wasn't really going to kill him. But she did want to know how he got out. Had that repulsor blast she thought she'd made up actually been his coming out of the water? She had no idea, but she was desperate to find out.

"We need to find someplace to bunker down for a while until I can get in contact with SHIELD," Grace said. "Are you in?"

Maya hesitated, unblinking for a moment, but then she nodded.

"Yeah, I'm in."

As Grace turned to find her car, which had, thankfully, survived the attack since she'd left it parked in the circle out front, she sensed something strange about Maya, something that Maya wasn't keeping, but she didn't focus on it for the moment. She sent a silent, telepathic message to Tony asking for his forgiveness because she was going to do exactly what he'd said not to. For her, safety wasn't exactly an option at this point. She was a SHIELD agent first and foremost, and she was going to deal with this how a SHIELD agent would. With no mercy.


	6. Superhero

**Major shoutouts to akt15, bluemermaidpitch, and VampWolf92!**

**Sorry for the wait! These chapters are lengthy, and on top of school, it's getting crazy. Thankfully, I get to go home this weekend for October break. I'm super excited so I can go home and see my cat. My crazy ass roommate is also coming back with me, so Baltimore doesn't know what it's got coming heh heh**

**Please keep reviewing and leaving your thoughts! I haven't gotten much feedback, so I'm not sure what y'all are thinking. Reviews are very important so I know your opinion!**

* * *

Chapter 6

As Grace walked to the car, an idea stopped her in her tracks, nearly causing Maya to run into her. She was still gripping the helmet tightly in her hand, and she looked down at it, her amber eyes alight with her idea.

"Wait," she said. Suddenly, she put the helmet on. Mentally, she was sending up a prayer to whoever was listening that her idea would work. She knew how to use Tony's suits, but the technology and all that was involved with it was still a little bit tricky, and she wasn't entirely sure if it would work.

"Jarvis?" she said into the helmet.

"Hello, Agent. It's good to see that you were unharmed in the explosion," Jarvis said smoothly into her ear. A wave of relief flooded through her, and she let out an audible sigh.

"Thank God, you're still with me. Where's Tony? Can you connect me to him?"

"We're in Rose Hill, Tennessee, Agent. However, I regret to inform you that I am unable to connect you with him, due to the fact that the suit he was using to travel there ran out of power and was severely damaged during the landing," Jarvis answered. A concerned frown etched across Grace's face.

"Damaged during the landing? Is Tony ok?" she asked, trying to swallow the panic down.

"Yes, Agent. Mr. Stark is perfectly ok. The last contact I had with him, we were outside in the snow, and he was quite unhappy with the temperature. It was snowing."

At Jarvis's words, Grace smiled and let out a laugh. It was probably the first time she'd laughed in hours, and it felt good. Of course Tony would be bitching about the weather. It wouldn't have been the first time, nor would it be the last. He didn't quite appreciate the cold, one of their many shared traits that she loved about him.

"Can I give you a message to give to him?" she asked, traces of the smile still lingering at the corners of her mouth.

"Of course, Agent. I shall record it for you."

"Tony. Tony, it's me. You have no idea how happy I was to hear that you're ok. Jesus, you scared the shit out of me. I swear I've been through hell and back today, thinking you were dead. Jarvis told me that you're in Rose Hill, Tennessee, and I know that you told me to stay safe, and I'm going to. But I'm not going to sit here. I have Maya. I'm taking care of her, and I won't get her involved with anything, but I can't just sit here and do nothing. You know I can't." She sighed into the helmet. "Come back to me. I love you, ok? God, listen to me, I'm tearing up. I didn't think I would, but here I am crying over the phone like this is a damn chick flick." She laughed softly into the phone through her tears. "Ok, call me on my cell when you get a chance. I'll be safe. You be safe, too. I love you."

"I will deliver the message to him as soon as he has charged and repaired the suit enough for me to operate, Agent Marks."

"Thanks, Jarvis," Grace said with a sniff. She wanted to wipe her eyes, but, well, her head was stuck in a helmet, and that was kind of impossible. "I'll talk to you later. I have to drive now."

"Have a safe drive, Agent."

Grace took the helmet off her head, feeling much more sobered and somber after her voicemail to Tony. In all truthfulness, she hadn't expected to get so emotional when leaving that message. She thought she might get a little overexcited, but here she was crying. She could feel Maya's eyes on her, and when she looked up and met the scientist's gaze, she offered a tiny shrug.

"I get a little weepy sometimes," she said. Maya smiled tightly and shook her head.

"No. You're fine. It's just a little strange to see someone…talking into a helmet." The brunette gave the assassin a grin, and Grace smiled back at her.

"Well, I guess we better get going," she said. "We have a lot of work to do, and that's an understatement."

Ten minutes later, Grace was behind the wheel, speeding down the highway in her car. She had never valued a car more than she did in that moment, and she figured that she probably never would again. In all honesty, she knew that she could easily get a cab or a rental cab, but there was something comforting about being in her own car when everything else she'd owned and loved had just slipped over the edge of a cliff to a watery grave. She hadn't even begun to think about how she was going to replace everything that had been so valuable to her in that house; Tony's lab would be a whole different story that she didn't even want to tackle.

"So why were you at the house tonight?" she asked suddenly. A silence had settled between her and Maya, and she figured that now was the time to break it. Grace wasn't terribly fond of silence when she felt that it could be used for something more useful, and this was one of those moments when she felt that she could get something from Maya. There was obviously a reason that the scientist had shown up at the house, and yes, Grace was suspicious about why. Women from Tony's past didn't exactly just show up on the doorstep every day.

"What was so important that you had to speak to Tony?" she asked. Despite how her words could have sounded, Grace was anything but curious, and her tone conveyed that. She wasn't jealous, and she wasn't expressing any sentiment of the sort. She could feel Maya's large brown eyes on her as she drove further down the highway, searching for a safe hotel that they both could bunk down in before anything happened.

"I think that my boss is working for the Mandarin," Maya said hesitantly, her voice shaking the slightest bit. Immediately, Grace frowned. She hadn't been expecting to hear that at all; she wasn't sure what she _had _been expecting to hear, but she definitely hadn't been expecting that. Worry flowed through her body as she considered the risk that Maya was at just by speaking to someone else about her suspicions. From what Grace had seen in the past few days, the Mandarin didn't fuck around, and he probably had all kinds of eyes out.

"So, if you still want to talk about it, I suggest that we get ourselves someplace safe." Maya's voice turned more terse as she pulled her eyes away from Grace and focused them on the road in front of her. Grace snorted. As if she would do something that _didn't _guarantee her own safety.

"Trust me, I've got that one covered," she said with a slight grin. "So your boss works for the Mandarin, you think? But Tony says you're a botanist so—"

"That figures. What I actually am is a biological DNA coder running a team of 40 out of a privately funded think tank. But sure, you can call me a botanist."

"Touche. Well…this boss of yours. What's his name?"

"Aldrich Killian."

At Maya's words, Grace's face went completely still. Aldrich Killian. Remembering the feeling of his lips grazing her cheek, she internally felt a shiver run down her spine. She definitely remembered him, and she felt a strange coldness in the pit of her stomach. As usual, her instincts had been right; there'd been something unpleasantly off about this guy, and now she had an idea as to what it was exactly that was off about him. For what felt like the millionth time that night, she wished that Tony were there with her. With little to no effort, she could picture his face exactly how he would've reacted had he been there to hear the information that Maya had just told her. Grace's face showed no reaction, but on the inside, she smiled as she thought about how stunned and annoyed Tony would look to hear it.

"Doesn't that beat all," Grace deadpanned. Another long silence passed between the two of them. The scientist looked out of her window nervously, and the assassin kept a steady grasp on the wheel as she continued to drive; both women weren't sure how to proceed from there. Just a few hours before, they hadn't known each other well at all, and now, it was almost as if they were the only real connection that they had left to anything in the world. Tragedy seemed to do that to people, Grace had realized.

"How do you know about SHIELD?" she asked. Maya turned to look at her again.

"I have a specific set of skills. SHIELD has been in contact with me several times. I don't work with them, but I've done some, consulting, I guess would be the best word for it. All I know is that they're a scary organization that I wouldn't want to cross twice," the brown-eyed woman said. Grace's mouth twitched into what resembled a small smile. "What do you do for them?"

"I have my own specific set of skills," Grace answered ambiguously. "I think the whole world got a nice view of that a few months back. So much for staying undercover. But when an alien invasion comes, and you have skills that come in handy for defeating said invasion, there's not much you can do but join in the fight and hope that you come out on top."

"How did you meet Tony?" Maya asked, no shyness or tentativeness coming into her voice, something that Grace appreciated. Without allowing her face to show too much, she allowed her smile to spread a little wider.

"I was supposed to watch him several years ago. One thing led to another, and here we are. How'd _you _meet him?" she asked. She knew full well what she was asking, and she knew that Maya would know, too, but she figured that they'd be spending some time together, so she might as well ask. Maya had brought the subject up first, anyway.

"Science conference back in '99, I think it was. I was getting in the middle of my DNA-coding, and Tony wound up helping me with it," Maya answered, returning the ambiguous tone back towards Grace.

"He's a real gem," Grace quipped smartly, her face going back to its customary blankness as she spoke.

In that moment, Pepper Potts used her perfect timing to call Grace. The assassin sensed it several seconds before it started ringing, and her stomach sank a little bit. Knowing Pepper, the blonde CEO had probably been calling all day, and she was probably worried sick about Grace and especially Tony, since there'd been no other evidence aside from his voicemail to Grace that he was alive.

"Hello?" she said, answering the phone and putting it up to her ear.

"Oh, thank God," Pepper breathed a sigh of relief on the other end. In just those three words, she sounded tense and unbelievably upset, causing Grace to feel a pang of guilt in her solar plexus for not having had her phone on her earlier. She of all people knew what it was like to try to get a hold of someone and not know if he were dead or alive. She was very painfully aware of that fact.

"I knew that you were alive because I saw you in the background on a news station that was covering the attack. I'm at the house now, and you're not here. Grace—" Pepper's voice began to break.

"Pep," Grace quickly interrupted, "he's alive. Tony's alive. Don't ask me how he made it out of there because I was sure he was dead, but he left a message for me using the Stark secure server. Pepper released a small sob of relief onto the phone and sighed.

"Jesus, I can't even say I'm going to kill him because I'm so relieved," she said shakily. "This whole day I've thought he was—"

"I know, I thought it, too. I thought it, too," Grace said softly. "He's having some trouble with the suit he used to escape so he's not coming back just yet. But I'm going to him. There are some things he wants to take care of, and I know he needs my help to do it."

"Grace, please tell me you're not going to help with what I think you're going to help with," Pepper said, pleading with the agent. Grace sighed into the phone.

"I can't sit here and not do anything. A second set of hands is always more helpful than just one, anyway. I can help him make any repairs to the suit, and he'll get it done much more quickly," she said logically.

"I hate when you're right. Where are you going tonight? Do you need a place to stay?"

"No, actually. I have an old friend of Tony's with me, anyway, and I need to lay low at a place the Mandarin wouldn't expect me to be."

"Be careful, Agent," Pepper said reluctantly into the agent's ear. Grace grinned, even though Pepper couldn't see her.

"I always am."

* * *

As Tony walked around in the town of Rose Hill, Tennessee, he only further confirmed his opinion that he hated the cold. He was dressed in clothes that weren't his, and even though they were _supposed_ to be warm clothes, he couldn't shake the chill off, and that put him in a relatively grumpy mood. He'd give anything to be back in Malibu where it was warm and sunny, and even when it rained, the rain was warm, unlike this intrusive cold.

"The sandwich was fair, the spring was a little rusty, the rest of the materials, I'll make do. By the way, when you said your sister had a watch?" Tony stopped walking to firmly stare at Harley, who stopped and looked back up at him.

"Yeah?" the kid asked.

"I was hoping for something a little more adult than that." The billionaire shoved his sleeve up and exposed the pink Dora the Explorer watch to solidify his point. Harley burst into laughter as they both continued walking down the alley.

"She's six!" he exclaimed. "Anyway, it's a limited edition."

Tony had never experienced a bigger facepalm moment.

"When can we talk about New York?" Harley asked suddenly.

"Maybe never. Relax about it." Irritation built up in Tony's chest. The last thing he wanted to do was discuss the Chitauri invasion with some little kid who hadn't even witnessed it. Harley had most likely been at home with his sister, watching it all take place on TV without even realizing that it wasn't a super cool superhero movie; that shit had happened in real life, and real people had been affected. Real people had been thrown into the heat of it to take care of it. His chest grew a little tighter as he thought about it, but he forced the thoughts out of his mind. He didn't want to have a repeat of what had happened at the bar the other day to happen in the middle of Rose Hill, Tennessee.

"What about the Avengers? Can we talk about them?" Harley continued.

"I don't know. Later," Tony monotoned. Harley sighed.

"Well, how about Grace then? Can we talk about Grace?" he asked in frustration. Tony slowed his pace a little bit and looked over and down at the kid, who was looking back up at him with an eagerness and delight about him that Tony recognized in his own childhood.

"What do you want to know about her?" Tony asked apprehensively. They'd found their destination, and he sat down on some bits of rubble. Might as well sit and talk instead of stand and talk, he reasoned to himself. Harley sat opposite of him with an even more thrilled look on his face now that he'd gotten Tony to talk about something that was mildly related to New York.

"Is it cool having a superhero girlfriend who can beat up on aliens?" he asked excitedly. Tony squinted his dark brown eyes at the young kid and propped the side of his head up against his hand, which he had propped up on his knee.

"That's an added bonus," he replied shortly.

"What's she like? Why was she dressed in that black outfit in New York? How many kids are you guys gonna have?" Harley spewed out. Tony's eyes widened in panic.

"Kids? Who said anything about kids?" he asked. Harley rolled his eyes as if it were the most obvious answer in the world and Tony were the stupidest kid in the class asking the question.

"If you're going to get married, there will always be kids," he smartly remarked. Tony made a face.

"Not always," he retorted.

"Yeah, always. Will you guys have superhero kids?"

"No." Tony ran a hand over his face. Normal engaged couples talked about getting married and having kids, but he and Grace hadn't gotten past the marriage part. In fact, the more Tony thought about it, in the two and a half years that he'd been with Grace, they'd never once discussed having kids or anything anywhere close to that. Realizing this was a strange moment for Tony, and he wondered if she'd ever noticed it and just hadn't said anything. Damn her, she was always so cryptically closed off, and she kept herself so hidden from him most of the time that it was very possible that the topic had, indeed, crossed her mind.

He'd just always figured that they were on the same page about it; they both had such dangerous, risky jobs, and they'd both come from such fucked up family lives that having kids simply seemed to be the last thing on either of their minds. If Tony and Grace had been normal people with normal family lives and normal jobs, kids would probably be the next logical step after marriage.

Tony again ran his hand over his face. Even if and Grace had kids—and that was an _if_, a very huge _if_ in Tony's mind, they sure as hell wouldn't be superhero kids. They'd be as far detached from the superhero life if Tony had anything to do with it, and he knew without a doubt that Grace would be the same exact way about it. But that was where it became impossible: Tony and Grace would never be able to give up the lifestyle that they led, and those kids of theirs would never have the kind of parents that they deserved.

"If I ever have a girlfriend, I definitely one who's a superhero," Harley remarked. Tony rolled his eyes and shook his head.

"No, you don't. It's a nightmare," he said. Harley rolled his eyes back at him.

"Obviously it's not if you're going to marry her," he retorted. Tony stared hard at the kid and then shrugged, giving up.

"Touche, kid. Touche," he said. "But be warned: superhero girlfriends do things their way, and you have little choice in the matter. I'm speaking from experience."

"But she can _kick ass_." Harley's expression showed that that was clearly the most important thing out of anything. Tony sighed for the 90,000th time and threw his hands up in the air in mock resignation.

"I give up. Fine. Go ahead. Get a superhero girlfriend. But when she's wormed her way into your heart, and you know you couldn't shake her even if you wanted to, don't come crying to me because I warned you."

"Tony and Grace, sittin' in a tree. K-I-S-S—"

"What is this, Kindergarten? Come on. Give me a little space. What's the official story here? What happened?" Tony completely changed the subject, much to Harley's chagrin. The blonde kid glared at him but allowed the subject to be changed, looking around him the same way Tony was.

"I guess this guy named Chad Davis used to live roundabouts. He won a bunch of medals in the Army. And one day, folks said he went crazy and made, you know, a bomb. Then he blew himself up. Right here."

As Harley spoke, Tony got up and wandered around, touching the walls and taking in the sight of everything. He very much wished that he could have Jarvis take a full scan of this so he could work on this in a lab somewhere. But unfortunately, he did not have a lab, and he did not have Jarvis, so he had to work purely old school: using his senses.

"Six people died, right?" he asked, glancing over his shoulder to check in with the kid.

"Yeah," Harley confirmed, his wide eyes on Tony as the billionaire continued examining the site.

"Including Chad Davis."

"Yeah, yeah."

"Yeah. That doesn't make sense." Tony crossed back over to the rubble and took a seat again, his face lined in thought and confusion. "Think about it. Six dead. Only five shadows."

"Yeah. People said these shadows are like the marks of souls going to heaven. Except the bomb guy. He went to hell, on account of he didn't get a shadow. That's why there's only five," Harley explained.

"Do you buy that?" Tony asked.

"It's what everyone says," Harley replied cautiously, unsure of whether he wanted to commit to saying yes or no. Tony nodded, his eyes sweeping around him, still unable to figure out what the deal was.

"You know what this crater reminds me of?" Harley asked suddenly.

"No idea. I'm not—I don't care."

"That giant wormhole in, um, in New York!" Harley said excitedly. Tony had never wanted to punch a kid across the face more than he did at that moment. In all reality, he didn't _actually_ want to punch the kid—it was more of a metaphorical punching than anything, but he was not happy at all to have this subject brought up again.

"Does it remind you?" Harley asked. Tony squeezed his eyes shut and pressed his fingers against the bridge of his nose as he struggled to fight the panic that threatened to swallow him up. Fuck, of all the fucking times for it to happen, too.

"That's manipulative. I don't want to talk about it," Tony shortly retorted.

"Are they coming back? The aliens?"

Tony's throat swelled, and he could barely breathe, let alone swallow. Grace. He had to get Grace and get her safe. He had to keep himself safe. He could feel his fingers begin to tingle as he was losing the battle of not freaking out versus freaking out.

"Maybe. Can you stop?" he snapped. "Remember what I told you, that I have an anxiety issue?"

Surprisingly, even surprising himself, Tony had told Harley that he had some freak outs. He'd only just now opened up to Grace about it, but for whatever reason, he'd told the kid about how he sometimes got really anxious and couldn't exactly stop it. He'd been eating the tuna sandwich, which really, had actually been a lot better than he'd been expecting.

"Does this subject make you edgy?"

"Yeah, a little bit. Can I just catch my breath for a second?" Tony asked, still trying in vain to fight off the overwhelming feeling that he couldn't breathe and that there was nothing he could do to change it.

"Are there bad guys in Rose Hill? Do you need—do you need a plastic bag to breathe into? Do you have medication?"

"No."

"Do you need to be on it?"

"Probably."

"Do you have PTSD?"

"I don't think so."

"Does Grace know about this?"

"Yes."

"Are you—are you going completely mental? I can stop. Do you want me to stop?"

"Remember when I said to stop doing that?" Tony snapped. He was ungracefully losing the fight to keep his cool, and it was beginning to show. "I swear that you're gonna freak me out." He and Harley stared at each other, a silence settling between them. Tony leapt up, unable to sit still any longer. "Ah, man, you did it. You happy now?"

"What did I say?" Harley shouted after Tony as the billionaire began jogging to the end of the street that they'd turned on to reach the ruins of the building. "Hey, wait up! Wait! Wait!"

Tony barely heard the kid as he ran, pulling his jacket off because it was so fucking hot. Sounds were escaping his throat as he fought for control over himself. He'd had no control over the situation with the wormhole, and he'd be damned if he couldn't have control over this situation, either. He repeated Grace's mantra in his head over and over: _You're ok. You're safe. Nothing's going to hurt you. You're safe. You're ok. You're safe._

He was on his knees in the snow, leaning against a building. His heart rate was slowing down the slightest bit, and he felt like he had a bit more control over his breathing. _You're safe. You're safe. You're safe_. Harley was right next to him, and he glanced up at the kid. Looking away, he took the hat off of his head and held it in his hands.

"What the hell was that?" Harley asked. Tony grabbed snow and put it on his face. Ok, so maybe the cold had one positive thing about it, and it was the cold icy snow that was cooling Tony down. He made a mental note to not hate the snow because it did come in handy for some things. With what remained of the snow, he balled it up and threw it at the kid.

"Your fault. You spazzed me out," he said in a monotone. Suddenly, he felt a vibrating in his pocket. He frowned and pulled it out, glancing at the caller ID. Seeing the number that was calling in made his heart leap into his throat, and he quickly answered.

"Grace?" he demanded. "Honey, is that you? Are you ok?"

"Tony, thank God." The sound of his fiancée's voice filled his ears, and he let out an audible sigh of relief, leaning back into the building with his eyes closed. Never had he felt more relieved or happy to hear the sound of her voice. His throat opened, and he found that he could breathe much more easily.

"Hi, honey," he said softly into the phone.

"Hi, baby. Oh, Tony, I got your message. I left one for you, but I didn't know the extent of the damage to your suit, and I didn't know when you were going to be able to get it. Jesus, I'm so glad you're ok."

"Wait, how did you get this number? This isn't even my cell phone," Tony said, a perplexed tone to his voice.

"You're not the only hacker in town," Grace replied smugly. "I've picked up on a few things from you. I also had Jarvis helping me. I have one of the helmets to your suits, so he was able to track down any indication about how to reach you."

"Well. Aren't you impressive," Tony quipped into the phone. He glanced over at Harley and saw the kid staring at him with huge eyes. "What?"

"What?" Grace asked, confused.

"No, not you. I've bunked up in this kid's garage, and we're investigating right now, and he's staring at me. What?"

"Is that Grace?" Harley asked, not even bothering to whisper. Tony nodded, feeling more pride than irritation. A smile split across the kid's face, and he gave Tony a thumbs up. "Tell her hi for me."

"She doesn't know who you are," Tony replied with a "come on, really?" look.

"Uh, yeah, she does. You just told her. Tell her hi!" Harley insisted. Tony heaved a deep sigh and then turned his attention back to the cell phone.

"He says hi."

"Well, tell him hi back."

Tony glanced back at the kid with a dull expression.

"She said hi." He turned his body a little farther away from the kid so he could get whatever privacy he could with his fiancée. "Where are you? Are you safe?"

"I'm at a hotel, but yeah, I'm safe. Maya's with me, and we're formulating a plan."

"A plan? What the fuck does that mean, Grace?"

"Ugh, this would've gone a lot easier had you been able to get my message I left you. I'm not sitting still, Tony. I'm not doing it." The determination and firmness was evident in Grace's voice, letting Tony know that this phone conversation wasn't going to go as smoothly as he'd wanted it to. He heaved a sigh of frustration and annoyance, making the line go static-y.

"Grace, I told you—"

"I don't follow orders." She cut him off. "You know I don't. If you were in my position, you wouldn't just sit there either. You know you'd do something to help me, and you can't even say that you wouldn't." Her voice wasn't angry; it was simple and matter of fact. Tony rested his head in his free hand, knowing that he was a standstill. Nothing he could say would get Grace to remain where she was out of harm's way. She was right. If she were the one who had been attacked and had ended up in Rose Hill, Tennessee, he'd be trying to help her. Not save her, but help her.

"I know," he admitted quietly. "But seriously, please be careful."

"I always am, Tony. Now practice what you preach until I get down there and can actually watch out for you."

Tony let out a groan.

"Please tell me you're not actually coming here."

"You bet I am. There's stuff I need to tell you that can't be told over the phone. Besides, don't you miss me?"

"More than you know." They were both quiet on the line. He didn't want to hang up because that was his last connection with her, and he wasn't willing to give that up just yet. But he also had stuff he needed to take care of in order to catch the Mandarin. Her breathing was soft and gentle, and he longed to hold her close.

"I love you," he said softly.

"I love you, too. Honey, I need to sleep now. Today's been, well, a long day. I'll see you within the next few days, ok? Do _not_ go anywhere until I'm there."

"Hmmm, I don't think I follow orders either," Tony said, smirking. She sighed back.

"Tony?"

"Fine. Fine. I won't. I love you. Sleep well."

"Ok. I love you." There was a hesitation as neither of them wanted to be the first to hang up, but Tony finally made himself do it. The click of the button separating him from her was a jolt back into reality. He looked up and found Harley still staring at him. As he sat there in the snow he realized how cold he was because, well, he was in the fucking snow.

"What?" he snapped.

"You totally love her," Harley said with a snicker. Tony rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Seriously, though, don't date a superhero. Ok, back to business. Where were we?"


	7. Deception

**Shoutouts to akt15, byakuya7309, bluemermaidpitch, la misteriosa volpe, and VampWolf92!**

**Ugh, I know it's taken me a long time to update. Unfortunately, writing long chapters means that it takes me longer to write them! This chapter was particularly difficult to write because I had to figure out how to write with Grace. Grace and Pepper are so totally different characters, and Grace does NOT react to things the same way that Pepper does, so trying to figure out how to incorporate Grace and her personality without drastically changing the movie is a challenge. Thank God it's a fun challenge! I think that this will be the only chapter where it'll be a lot different for her than the movie. Killian will capture her at some point because there's definitely going to be the huge dramatic scene at the end where she falls, and Tony doesn't catch her.**

**Speaking about the end, I'm having a bit of difficulty. I hated how Tony got rid of his arc reactor, so my heart is telling me to write it the way I want to and have Tony keep it. However, I feel like the arc reactor removal is going to play a decent sized part in upcoming movies, and it'll be a bitch trying to get around that when I write future movie-verse Tony/Grace fics, so logically I know I should get rid of it like in the movie. Let me know what y'all think.**

**Also, I haven't gotten a lot of feedback on what you guys want next. I'm definitely going to be writing some Supernatural fanfics, so if you like Supernatural, I hope you'll like my stories. However, I want to keep going with my Marvel stories. Do y'all want another Emma/Steve story? Please give me feedback! Leave your thoughts in the reviews, or feel free to PM me. I always answer my PMs!**

**Sorry that this A/N was so damn long. I basically just like to hear myself type. Sorry. I hope you like the chapter, and PLEASE leave your opinions!**

* * *

Chapter 7

"We were talking about the bomber," Harley said clearly and evenly to Tony, who was wincing and pulling himself up from the snow while a long string of curse words ran through his head. The snow had felt good when he'd been overheated and needed to calm down, but it sure as fuck felt cold as shit right now, and he was not feeling very appreciative of it anymore.

"He have relatives? Mom? Mrs. Davis, where is she?" he asked.

"Where she always is." Harley's glance lead Tony to look over towards a bar, most likely the only bar in all of Rose Hill, Tennessee. As Tony took the sight of it in, he realized that he could definitely use a drink if time allowed.

"See? Now you're being helpful," he remarked to the kid. "Come on. I have an appearance to make."

"You? What about me?" Harley asked, his face showing disappointment that he wasn't being included in the next step of the plan. Tony stopped and looked at him.

"Kid, that's a bar. You don't think it's suspicious if I walk in there with a kid who's clearly not of drinking age?" Tony monotoned. "Go hide somewhere. I'll be back out in a sec."

"So not fair," Harley mumbled and sighed, walking off somewhere. He stopped and turned to look over his shoulder. Tony shooed him on with his hand.

"Keep walking!" he encouraged. Harley huffed out another sigh and then kept walking to take cover behind some cars. Tony kept his smirk in check as he walked towards the bar. Even though Harley was just a kid, the billionaire found a tiny bit of reassurance in having someone else in this with him. Knowing that the kid was there meant that Tony wasn't as completely alone and disconnected from everything as he'd originally thought that he was. But then again, Harley was like, what, 12? Nonetheless, the kid was better than nothing.

Lost in thought, Tony collided shoulders with a passing woman. He stopped and turned to half-heartedly offer up an apology.

"Sorry," he mumbled. He noticed that she'd dropped something on the ground, and being the ever fabulous gentleman that he was, he knelt down and got it. "Lady? Is this, uh…"

She turned back and took it from him, making eye contact with him.

"Thank you," she said. In the dim light from the bar, Tony caught a glimpse of the woman's face. She was a redhead with solid, strong features that hinted at a subtle masculinity. The wind blew some of her hair back, and that was when Tony noticed the significant scar on the side of her face. It was a little bit of a surprise, but Tony was quick at thinking on his feet, and he rarely let anything like a scar throw his game off.

"Nice haircut. It suits you," he said, his voice genuinely complimentary. The woman continued to gaze at him with her dark eyes, an unidentifiable expression across her face as she looked at him. Apprehension was clearly present in her movements and the way she held herself, but there was something that Tony also couldn't put his finger on. This was one of those moments where he'd kill to have Grace there with him; Grace was the master at reading people and picking up their hidden agendas and all that other SHIELD agent shit she did.

"Nice watch," she replied evenly.

"Yeah. Limited edition," Tony answered with a nonchalant seriousness in his voice. His eyes barely left the woman as he spoke. She gave him a strange feeling, and he didn't like the taste that was left in his mouth as she smiled smoothly back at him.

"Oh, I don't doubt it." Her face was smiling, but her eyes weren't. "Well, have a good evening." She turned over her shoulder and began walking off, looking back at him in such a way that made Tony think she wasn't just trying to be polite or trying to give him a onceover because she found him desperately handsome. Adjusting his hat, he backed away and walked into the bar, determined to find Mrs. Davis and get more answers about this whole fucking Mandarin situation.

One of the first things he noticed when he walked into the bar was the sheriff sitting in a barstool downing a drink. A gun was placed strategically on the sheriff's hip, and Tony spotted it immediately. The second thing that Tony noticed was the shitty music that was threatening to wreck his ears. He'd always hated country, and unfortunately, country music was what was being played at this bar. Really, it didn't surprise him; Rose Hill, Tennessee was just the place that would play country music, even if he didn't wonder if the choice of music was simply to torture him. One thing that he had in common with Grace was their vehement distaste for the musical genre, and as he tried to block out the music, he could picture Grace wincing and then shooting him a look that he would mirror his own horrified expression.

He exhaled as he walked through the bar, hoping to find Mrs. Davis as quickly and painlessly as possible. Honestly, he was still feeling the tiniest bit rattled by that encounter with the redheaded woman, and he just wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. Hopefully Harley was actually being safe and staying out of the way.

And because Tony Stark was Tony Stark, he couldn't resist making a detour over to the bartender and ordering a drink. Even though he was technically on a mission, he wasn't about to deprive himself of a well-deserved drink. He'd had a hell of a day, and he would be damned if anyone told him that he couldn't have a drink just because he was working. Besides, he had to blend in with everyone and not stand out from the crowd; having a drink in his hand would make him look just like everyone else. He waited for his drink as the bartender quickly and skillfully poured him a glass of bourbon. Scanning the crowd, he looked for anyone who could possibly be Mrs. Davis.

Grace had been teaching him about how to access his natural survival skills: his senses. For the past month, she'd been showing him how to notice little things that normally he wouldn't have before, the tiny clues that gave away what a person was made of. He had to admit that when he'd first met Grace back in 2010, he hadn't thought that her skills were _real _skills, but he'd quickly been proven wrong when they'd gone to Monaco, and she'd taken down Whiplash as if it were no big deal. Honestly, she probably hadn't even broken a sweat. That had probably been the moment when he'd truly realized how impressive she actually was. Since that day, she'd continued to impress him with every second that he spent with her. As his eyes continued to scan the room and take in the details of each person, a smirk played across his mouth; who was he kidding—she'd impressed him since day one.

The bartender slid the glass into his hand, and Tony nodded and left a few dollars on the counter. He'd been so relieved to see that he'd actually had his wallet on him after he'd done a careful search of himself in Harley's garage. Sometimes when he worked around the house, he didn't keep his wallet in his back pocket, but for whatever reason that day, he'd unconsciously slipped his wallet in his jeans.

As he put his wallet in his back pocket again, he took note of a woman in the corner fingering what appeared to be dog tags. _Yahtzee_, Tony thought to himself. Taking his hat off to appear more gentlemanly and approachable, he indulged himself by swallowing a large gulp of his bourbon before taking a few steps forward.

"Mrs. Davis?" he asked, approaching the woman. She had blonde hair that stuck out in such a way that Tony wondered if she'd ever been electrocuted. He probably should've felt like a dick for thinking something like that, but it was a genuine question of his. Her face was hard and bitter, her eyes staring up at him as if she didn't trust him and never would.

"Mind if I join you?" Tony set his glass down on the table, pointing at the chair across from her by way of inviting himself to sit.

"Free country," she replied easily. It was hard to detect any sarcasm in her tone, and her face looked a mix of she didn't care while also challenging him to make that move. Tony took that as enough of an acquiesce to sit down opposite her.

"Sure is," he remarked, plopping down in the chair and depositing his hat in the chair next to him. Hats were foreign to him; Tony Stark didn't wear baseball caps very often. Hell, Tony Stark _never _wore baseball caps, but hard times called for hard disguises, and that was the purpose of the baseball cap. Also, he'd been so damn cold when Harley had offered it to him that he'd just taken it without any other questions. If a baseball cap meant that he could be a hint warmer, he'd leap on that opportunity. Looking at the hat in the chair, it struck him that the hat, and most likely the clothes that Tony donned on his body, had probably belonged to Harley's dad before he'd ditched. The thought made Tony feel uneasy, and he looked away from the headpiece.

"Alright. Where would you like to start?" Mrs. Davis asked. Tony loved a person who didn't beat around the bush, a quality that he admired so much in Grace and even Pepper. Neither of them tried to sugarcoat anything when it came to him, and sometimes he damn well needed that. He tried to let his appreciation show on his face without looking like an asshole. Mrs. Davis was clearly apprehensive of him, and her prepared defenses were blatantly showing.

"I just want to say, I'm sorry about your loss," Tony started. He was genuine as he spoke the words; he was genuinely sorry for the loss that Mrs. Davis had suffered, and he wanted to express it. He definitely knew what it was like to lose someone who meant a lot. "I want to know what _you_ think happened."

That seemed to have the opposite reaction that he'd been hoping for because it seemed to make the woman in front of him angry. Her eyes hardened, and her hand rubbed across her mouth, as if she were struggling to bite back words that would not get Tony any closer to any sort of conclusion.

"Look, I brought your damn file," she said bitterly. "You take it. Go. Whatever was in here, he wanted _no_ part of it."

The wheels in Tony's head started turning. File? He hadn't even contacted the woman, let alone asked her for a file. Frowning, he opened the cover of the file and caught sight of a young man in uniform, surrounded by sand. Something was definitely off about this whole situation, and Tony could feel his skin starting to tingle as he realized that he wasn't quite alone in wanting to find out more about Chad Davis.

"Clearly you're waiting for someone else, huh?" he asked. "Supposed to meet someone here?"

Mrs. Davis's eyes suddenly lost a small bit of their hardness, but the apprehension increased as she realized what Tony was saying. Wariness crossed over her face, and she eyed Tony cautiously.

"Yeah," she replied. Her eyes stayed on him as Tony continued glancing through the file. The letters MIA in the top right corner of one of the papers caught his notice, and he stared at it, squinting his dark brown eyes as he wondered if Chad Davis had ever gone MIA.

His gaze stopped on the name Taggart, J. Recognition caused his brain to light up; he knew that name. Taggart had been one of the victims of the Chinese theatre explosion that had landed Happy in the hospital. Hiding the confusion that threatened to line his face, Tony kept a cool expression so as not to alarm Mrs. Davis any further. Suddenly, it hit him. It hit him harder than any bullet, shrapnel, or HYDRA-lookalike weapon had ever hit him before. If he were a cartoon, he knew that he would've had that light bulb popping up over his head as the realization and the conclusion were suddenly so clear that he almost couldn't believe he hadn't noticed it at first.

"Mrs. Davis, your son didn't kill himself," Tony said quickly and quietly. "I guarantee you, he didn't kill anyone. Someone used him."

The look on Mrs. Davis's face instantly turned from apprehension to curiosity and almost disbelief. Leaning in to hear what Tony was saying, her solemn eyes bored into his own.

"What?" she asked in disbelief.

"As a weapon," Tony replied coolly. The words seemed to rattle Mrs. Davis because her physicality completely changed. Seeming to close the world around her off from the rest of them, she moved her arms in front of her and continued to lean in closer to him.

"You're not the person that called me after all, are you?" she whispered, a tinge of emotion creeping into her voice. Suddenly, a hand slammed down onto the table. Tony almost jumped, but he kept control over himself as he looked up at the redhead he'd bumped into outside the bar. A chill ran over his skin as she looked at him and then back at Mrs. Davis.

"Actually I am."

That was when Tony knew he'd hopped straight out of the pan and into the fire.

* * *

A good twenty minutes later, Tony was soaked, slightly sore, mildly hyped up on adrenaline, and very satisfied. He walked out of the bar holding his coveted file in his hands. Admittedly, he was feeling pretty smug and proud of himself. He'd just taken out two of those fire zombies without the help of a suit, and he'd done it strategically, all while shooting out smart aleck comebacks. The autobiography comment had been one of his best ones, he thought.

As he walked towards his car, he felt Harley come up beside him. Thankfully, the kid was unharmed, though the slightest bit shaken up. He had a good head in a tough situation; Tony had to give it to him. Instead of freaking the fuck out and shrieking, the kid had stayed calm and cool. Well, at least as calm and cool as a kid his age could.

"You're welcome," Harley announced snarkily and somewhat smugly. Tony frowned and looked at the blonde boy, who was staring up at him with a pleased look on his twerpy little face.

"For what? Did I miss something?" he asked. It almost escaped his notice that Harley had somehow gotten his hands on a cowboy hat and was now wearing it on his head. The billionaire contemplated asking Harley where he'd gotten it, from whom he'd gotten it, and most importantly, _why_ was he wearing a cowboy hat in the midst of everything that had just happened, but Tony let it slide. Sometimes it was better to just ignore weird things that kids did.

"Me, saving your life." Harley smacked his hand off the side of Tony's arm in a bro way.

"Yeah, A, I saved you first. B, thanks. Sort of. And C, if you do someone a solid, don't be a yutz, alright? Just play it cool. Otherwise you come off grandiose." Tony had reached his car, and he pulled on the handle, opening the door to get in.

"Unlike you?" Harley remarked. Tony repressed the sigh that was at the edges of his mouth, and he turned around to face the boy, surveying him hard with his dark brown eyes. The kid stared back up at him defiantly, his cowboy hat making him look ridiculous—Jesus Christ, Tony couldn't take the thing seriously with a fucking cowboy hat on. He paused, about to say something, but then he decided against it. Harley was a kid; he wasn't going to stand and argue with a kid.

"Admit it—you need me," Harley said proudly. "We're connected."

"What I need is for you to go home, be with your mom, keep your trap shut, guard the suit, and stay connected to the telephone because if I call, you better pick up, ok? Can you feel that? We're done here. Move out of the way, or I'm gonna run you over. Bye, kid." Tony started to get back into the car. The adrenaline high was starting to wear off, and he just felt tired more than anything else. All he wanted to do was curl up in his bed and sleep. Unfortunately, he didn't have a bed anymore, and he didn't have the time to sleep. He could feel the kid still staring at him as he shut the door of the car and started the engine.

"You definitely need to take a class about kids if you're going to have them," Harley said, a good-natured sigh escaping his mouth. A frown etched deep into his face, Tony looked out the window at the thing and stared apprehensively at him.

"Again with the kids thing?" he asked. Harley shrugged, that easy carelessness about him as he stared back at Tony coolly.

"I'm just saying. If you're going to have kids, you definitely need to learn a few things," he replied. Tony rolled his eyes.

"There are no kids in the picture," he said in a dead monotone. Harley smirked in return.

"Yeah, you obviously know better than I do," he retorted. Tony let out a sigh and looked at him.

"I'm sorry, kid. You did good," he said. Harley took a few steps closer to the car, wearing only his hood now.

"So now you're just gonna leave me here, like my dad?" he asked. The kid's eyes were wide and soulful as they stared back at Tony. The billionaire blinked several times.

"Yeah. Wait, you're guilt-tripping me, aren't you?"

"I'm cold." Harley wrapped himself up in his jacket, looking pitiful as his big eyes seemed to get even bigger and more pathetic as he tried to look small and defenseless. Tony checked his grin before the kid saw it; the tyke had some great manipulation skills, and the dark-haired genius had to give props to him.

"I can tell," Tony replied, mimicking the face and the tone of the kid in front of him. "You know how I can tell? Because we're connected."

And with that, he drove off, knowing that Harley could fend for himself and would be ok. Tony had a lot of work to do, and this was only the beginning of it.

* * *

"I thought you were going to sleep." Maya's voice in the corner brought Grace out of her focus as she was having Jarvis hack into the drives that she needed. The amber-eyed agent had her back turned to the "botanist," who was lying on one of the beds in their small, cramped hotel room.

"Not quite. I'm hacking into your AIM account," she replied easily. She sensed Maya leaping off the bed and rushing over towards Grace.

"What? How are you doing that?" she demanded. Grace held up a chip in her hand, her eyes coolly staring at Maya.

"Your phone," she said. "You weren't paying attention. I thought I'd swipe it."

Maya opened her mouth and closed it, her lips hardening into a line. There was an uneasiness that was obvious about the woman, and Grace picked up on it in a heartbeat. The agent casually placed her hands behind her in the chair and leaned back on them, assuming the position of relaxing when really, she was keeping her hands close to her gun. Maya sat down on the bed opposite of the desk where Grace was sitting. Her face attempted to hide a panic that was beginning to well up inside her, but Grace could read it, and she knew that if Maya were panicking, there was clearly something worth panicking about. Keeping her face still and expressionless, she tilted her head to the side and lowered her voice to a steady seriousness.

"Wanna tell me what you were doing at the house tonight, Maya?" she asked. Maya's breathing was growing heavier each second that passed, and she didn't say anything. Grace glanced over at the computer to see where it was in the scheme of being done with downloading Maya's profile. Her gaze switched back to Maya, noticing that she'd moved the slightest bit.

"I think it'd be beneficial for you to know that my special set of skills are survival skills. My senses are so in tune with everything around me that I can sense movement before it happens, phones before they ring, things like that. If you think about making any kind of movement, I will know, and I will stop you before you even lift your arm. If you think about pressing any kind of secret button or anything like that, I will know. Do you understand?" Grace knew that her fiery eyes and blank face were enough to scare someone who had little background training in fighting, and just by looking at Maya, she could tell that the scientist had very little fighting skills. Maya nodded, not quite making eye contact with the assassin.

"Perfect. Let's see what your files show. Jarvis, how many minutes until the file is completed?"

"Approximately five minutes, Agent."

"Great. So Maya, talk to me." Grace pulled her gun out of her waistband and placed it in her lap. The woman stared at it and then looked back up at Grace.

"How do you know I have anything to do with the Mandarin?" Maya asked, her voice shaking.

"I smelled some warning signs when we were in the car. Something seemed off about you at the house, but in the car on the way here? I really started picking up on some interesting stuff. Then I saw you taking what were supposed to be discrete pictures of the hotel out in the parking lot, and those thumbs were firing out some crazy text messages. Sending pictures to Killian so he knows where we are?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Maya replied stiffly. Grace gave a short laugh.

"I can tell when people are lying. You're lying. But that's ok because as soon as this download is complete, I'll get to read all about you and your involvement with the Mandarin."

"It's not what it looks like, Grace," Maya said quickly.

"If I had a quarter for every time I heard that. Thrill me."

"Killian funded my ideas. I wanted to work with someone, and he had the money and the resources to help me. That's all."

"Why don't I believe that?" Grace asked calmly. "If that were all, you wouldn't have gotten so panicked when you saw that I'd taken your phone chip. Remember, Maya, I'm trained to read you better than you can read a menu in a 24 hour diner."

"How are you human?" Maya asked quietly. Grace smiled wryly in return.

"That's because I'm not."

She sensed someone standing outside the door, and her amber eyes flicked towards the area. As usual, she sensed the knock before it came. Tilting her head, she kept her gaze steady on the door.

"What do you think will happen if I don't answer?" she asked, musing out loud as if more to herself than to anyone else. Her eyes went back to Maya. "Hmmm?"

"They'll tear the door down, and they'll do their best to kill you," Maya answered. Grace's eyebrows shot up into her hairline, and a genuine smile flashed across her face. Standing up, she crossed towards Maya and lowered her face down until she was at eye level with the scientist.

"The truth. Good job," she said. "Jarvis, where are we now?"

"Several seconds remaining, Agent. I don't think that you will have enough time to survey these records before the door gets torn down," the artificial intelligence quipped. Grace smirked, turning her attention back to Maya.

"I don't think that's an issue. There aren't hit men outside; it's Killian. He's outside the door right now."

"What?" Maya's eyes filled with pure panic and alarm. Grace nodded. She'd known the scent as soon as he'd set foot into the hallway. The door to the stairs was at the opposite end of the hall, and that's where he'd come from. Consciously not wrinkling her nose, Grace had been overwhelmed by the smell of his cologne. Killian didn't necessarily have _bad_ cologne, per se; he just wore a lot of it, and Grace was overly sensitive to the smell of it.

That was another thing that she had to add to the never-ending list of why she loved Tony: he didn't wear cologne. Even before he'd become romantically involved with Grace, he hadn't worn cologne. She'd known it as soon as she'd set foot in his house for the first time because it was absent of the offensive, lingering scents that were so unpleasant to her nose. For her, Tony's scent was home. Then again, he had a thousand different smells about him, but each one was home. When he spent most of the day working in the lab, he smelled strongly of grease and sweat. When he worked on his fitness and strength training, he smelled of sweat, metal, and rubber mats. When he just spent the day with her, talking, travelling, and just being him, he smelled clean, the scent of his shampoo always one step behind him.

"Killian," Grace repeated, walking over to the door. Even though she wasn't looking at Maya, she could still sense the woman sitting still, not making a single move. Grace put her mouth to the crack in the door.

"Killian?" she called out. "That's you, isn't it?"

Silence.

"I know it's you. I can smell you a mile away. Hold on—give me, like, one minute, ok?" She crossed over to her laptop and began packing it up in her bag. Glancing over at Maya, she saw her staring with her huge brown eyes. Grace was calm as she continued to quickly gather her items. Slinging her bag over her shoulder, she took one last look at Maya.

"You can either let him in or wait for him to bust the door down, I guess," she said. And with that, Grace picked up a lamp, busted the window, and jumped out at the speed of lightning. The room wasn't that far up from the ground; had a normal person like Maya jumped out of the window, she probably would've broken her leg. However, Grace was a special case, and she wasn't fazed. She took off bolting down the sidewalk towards the car.

Whether Maya had decided to let Killian in the room, or he'd worked his way into the room, Grace knew he was in the room because bullets started flying out of the window in her direction. She sensed each bullet and where it was headed, and she dodged each one, successfully reaching her car. Without pausing, she got in, started the car, and zoomed out of the parking lot so fast, it was as if she hadn't even been there at all.

Adrenaline pulsed through Grace's veins; as a SHIELD agent, she was so used to shit like this happening that it barely made her bat an eye, but the adrenaline still got to her every time. She could barely sit still behind the wheel of the car as she forced her driving to be still and level. Her heart was pounding beneath her ribcage, but it was that good kind of pounding that she got after she'd had a good physical training session.

"Jarvis, call that number you found for Tony," she ordered, her voice firm and under control.

"Actually, Agent, I'm up and running down in Rose Hill, and I'm talking on the phone with Mr. Stark. If you would like me to connect you there, I can do so," the artificial intelligence replied. Grace let out an audible sigh of relief, half closing her eyes.

"Hallelujah! Perfect. Connect me. Quickly."

"Right away, Agent."

Grace sat quietly for a few moments, steadying her driving as her adrenaline began to level out, and she came down off her high. Her heart was still thumping loudly in her chest, but the jittery feeling that she got after physical activity was starting to abate.

"Grace?"

"Tony!" Grace all but shouted into the phone. "Tony, I'm driving, and actually, I don't know where exactly I'm driving to, but I'm driving. Jesus Christ, do I have a shit ton to tell you."

"Looks like you didn't go to sleep, I take it," Tony remarked back into the phone. She grinned.

"No, I didn't. Anyway, I was hoping to tell you this in person, but I think it's urgent enough that I'm going to tell you over the phone. Is this safe? Can anyone tap this line?" she asked.

"Well, technically, Harley can hear. He's holding the phone up to the suit, and you're speaking through the suit, so yes. I'm in the car, but he's with the suit. Ok, long story, yes."

"I'm trustworthy!" a voice piped up. Grace used her deduction skills to conclude that that voice belonged to Harley.

"Yeah, he's kind of harmless," Tony droned. Pausing, Grace quickly ran over her options. She needed to tell Tony straight away, but she didn't want to involve this kid any more than she had to. Involving people became tricky; she'd learned that the hard way in the past.

"Remember that guy you were checking up on me with?" she asked carefully. A pause from Tony let her know that he was thinking.

"Yes," he answered, his voice questioning and cautious.

"Your botanist friend and I were talking, and she works for him. Turns out, he's working with the explosions." Her words were loaded with meaning, and she knew that Tony would understand exactly what she was saying.

"What? Seriously? You're sure?" he demanded quickly, not wasting any time.

"Would I call you in the middle of the night while I'm fucking driving to tell you if I weren't sure?" she asked in a monotone.

"Um, hon, language," Tony replied. Grace rolled her eyes.

"I don't care!" Harley exclaimed.

"See, he doesn't care. How old are you, Harley?"

"I'm eleven. I've heard a lot worse."

"Exactly. He's heard worse. Anyway, yeah, I'm sure. I just jumped out a window with that guy I mentioned sending a stream of lead after me," she remarked.

"Are you ok?" Tony asked, concern filling his voice.

"Unscathed. I'm fine. I don't think I'm being tailed either. At some point I'm going to have to pull over and change the plates, so I'm not cruising around with STARK 32 on the back. Kind of gives away the element of surprise, I think. I also need to figure out what direction I'm driving and how to change that to get to Tennessee, so when we hang up I'll have Jarvis do that."

"I wish you wouldn't come, but since I know I can't change your mind, I have stuff to tell you in person. Too complicated over the phone, but I've had a huge breakthrough," Tony replied.

"Bigger than mine?"

"Well, maybe not quite that big. You can have the prize this time, Princess." At Tony's words, Grace smiled. It'd been a long time since he'd called her Princess, and she hadn't realized how much she'd missed it until he said it.

"What do I get for winning?" she asked, a smirk planting on her face.

"I'll just have to show you," Tony answered, his voice dripping with all kinds of suggestions and promises. Grace couldn't hide her smile as she continued to drive.

"I really hope you guys aren't talking about sexual stuff," Harley said suddenly with a sigh.

"Stop listening. Keep eating candy," Tony ordered, his voice not holding any suggestive edge to it anymore.

"I can't stop listening if I have to sit here and hold the phone up."

"Don't be a smartass. Grace, I know I've said this a thousand times, but seriously. Please be safe."

"Oh, you said please. I guess I have to be," she remarked teasingly. Tony sighed into the phone, the reactionary static of the phone sparking about in her ear, making her wince from the unpleasant sound it made.

"Just get here in one piece. That's all I want." Tony's voice was tired, and she couldn't deny that he sounded exhausted. If he were too tired to really put up a fight with her, he must be tired. Instantly, her chest ached to touch him and hold him. Ever since he'd fallen asleep next to her one day in the lab before they were together, she'd seen the yearning he had for comfort. She strived to give it to him whenever she could because she knew that that was the one thing he needed and wanted most. It was his biggest vulnerability.

Tony Stark was so good at holding himself together and making himself look like this big tough guy with all kinds of sarcastic responses that it was almost impossible to see past that. Not for Grace, though. She could read the billionaire clear as day, and she was the only one that he allowed to see him in that way. A strong wave of missing him washed over her unexpectedly.

"I miss you," she said softly.

"I miss you, too. The good thing about you coming down here is the fact that we'll be together. You know, I guess it's good so I can keep an eye on you."

Grace let out a groan.

"Tony—"

"I know, I know, I know, I know, I know. You don't need me to keep an eye on you, but it just makes me feel better, ok? God, now I sound all needy and gooey," he grumbled. She laughed out loud.

"I'm gonna go so I can get Jarvis calculating the route to find you. Harley, make sure he doesn't kill himself, alright?"

"I think I can do that," the kid replied. Grace laughed again.

"Hey, Grace," Tony said.

"Yeah?"

"I love you, ok?"

"I love you, ok. God, we're so corny."

"I know. I think I kind of like it."

"I think I do, too. I'll call you once I'm closer into town to give you an idea of when I'll be in. I love you."

"I love you. I'll see you soon."

When Tony hung up, he didn't think about the possibility that he wouldn't be seeing her as soon as he thought he would be. And of course, it didn't cross his mind that the next time he saw her, she would be in more danger than she ever had been in her life.


	8. Extremis

**Shoutouts to bluemermaidpitch, VampWolf92, LoneWolfPack, byakuya7309, sobreyra274, MsRose91, MicroSpider, Hannah, Lina Marie, and ehluvr3 for the reviews! Wow, thank y'all so much for taking the time to give me your feedback!**

**Ok, so I know it's been almost a month since my last update, and I promise I'll try to not make it so long again. College is crazy with all the work I have to do, and it's kind of cockblocking my fan fiction writing hahaha!**

**I know that this chapter is a bit shorter than the others, but I wanted to get a chapter out to you guys, and a longer chapter means longer time in posting, so hopefully y'all don't mind too much. Getting back to some movie action in the next chapter, I'd say! Yay!**

**Have you guys been watching Agents of SHIELD? I'm totally addicted. Is it bad that I'm already planning fan fiction for that show? Guilty as charged :P**

**Anyway, so sorry for the wait, so sorry for the shortness of this, here's the chapter, and please, please, please leave me your thoughts and opinions! I love hearing from each and every one of you, whether it's stuff you liked or stuff you think I can improve! Much love 3**

* * *

Chapter 8

When Grace had her mind set on a goal, she didn't rest until she'd achieved it. And that goal was getting to Rose Hill, Tennessee as quickly as possible in order to help Tony and hear what he had to tell her that couldn't be said over the phone. She glanced at the clock, unsure of how long she'd been driving. For the past few hours she'd been making calls to close friends so that they knew she was alive and ok. Well, close friends only meant co-worker, fellow teammate, and future maid of honor Natasha Romanoff and other fellow teammate Steve Rogers.

Natasha had been more than relieved to hear that Grace—and even Tony—was ok, but she hadn't given quite the reaction that Steve had. Grace couldn't pinpoint when exactly she and Steve had gotten to be so close; there was nothing between them that was more than platonic, but they were certainly close in a way that she and Natasha weren't. Though she couldn't pinpoint _when_ they'd become close, she could definitely pinpoint _why_.

Steve Rogers was the only other person who'd successfully survived a Super Soldier injection, and he could relate to her on a whole other level that no one else could. They both knew what it was like to feel enhanced, brought out of themselves in a way that they never could've hoped or dreamed of, and that knowledge right there bonded them in a way that they could never have with anyone else.

Though Tony would never admit it, he was jealous of the Super Soldier for having such a close relationship with Grace. During the Battle of New York, Grace had seen his feelings swimming in the deep brown of his eyes, carefully locked away from the rest of the team except for her; she knew how to read him better than she could read any book in the world. She wasn't an idiot, and she'd known that that was why he didn't get along with Steve, though she'd never said anything to him about it in order to save his pride. Had she said anything, Tony would've scoffed and insisted that _Tony Stark_ would _never_ be jealous of Steve Rogers. A hint of amusement crossed Grace's amber eyes.

"Agent, we're nearing Rose Hill," Jarvis said suddenly, breaking her from her thoughts. A full out smile slipped across her face. Just a few moments more, and she'd be reunited with Tony, able to help him and end the life of the man who had cost them so much. No one could call Agent Grace Marks sentimental because that was the absolute last word in the world that she would use to describe herself, but there was a twinge of something that could possibly resemble sentimentality as she thought about the destroyed home that belonged to her and Tony.

Grace knew that the reason she was sentimental about the destruction of her house was the fact that it was her house with _Tony_; that house was a symbol of their life together, as shallow and materialistic as it'd sounded. Hell, she could even admit that they'd created some great memories together in the huge, extravagant mansion that Tony had lived in for some number of years before he'd opened it up to share it with her. The Stark Mansion had been where she and Tony had met and fallen in love, and well, yeah, she did feel a little sentimental at the thought of it destroyed.

"Is Tony still in the car?" she asked.

"No, Agent, he's at the garage," Jarvis replied in his smooth, calm voice.

"Perfect, Jarvis. What's the update?"

"It appears that Mr. Stark, in your absence, has suffered another anxiety attack and has gone shopping for things other than clothes, cars, or fancy gadgets."

Grace frowned, a perplexed curiosity written across her face.

"Shopping? J, are you malfunctioning because I swear you just said Tony went shopping. _Tony _went shopping?" she asked, her voice rising up in pitch at the end. In all the years that she'd been with Tony, she could only remember him willingly going shopping for something other than the aforementioned items Jarvis had listed maybe three or four times. He went whenever she was back from an extremely rough mission that left her exhausted or if she were sick or injured. That was it.

"Yes, Agent. I understand that it is hard to believe, but Mr. Stark is building his own version of the suit while the one he crashed continues to recharge."

"Huh. Well, I'll be. Hey, is this it up here on the right?"

"Yes, Agent. That is the garage where Mr. Stark has taken refuge."

Grace slowed down as she pulled up. Quickly, she took in sight of her surroundings. She couldn't openly park the car on the side of the street like this; it'd ruin the whole lying low thing that she'd had in mind, and she had a feeling that the residents of Rose Hill, Tennessee didn't often see a nice, expensive Audi sitting out in the street. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a shed that didn't look as though it were being used.

"Bingo," she mumbled under her breath. Quietly and quickly, Grace pulled the attention-catching Audi behind the shed and put it in park. As she stepped out of the car, the cold chill of the air made her muscles stiffen. No matter how many times she was sent on missions in locations where the weather seemed to be permanently cold, she couldn't quite get used to the uncomfortable sharpness that penetrated her skin all the way down to her bones. Closing the car door and locking it behind her, she remembered that she was supposed to have called Tony the closer into town she'd gotten, and she realized that she hadn't called him. Oh, well, she thought with a shrug as she pulled her thin sweater around her; her visit would just have to be a surprise.

She began walking towards the garage when she suddenly sensed something whirring through the air headed straight for her. By the time she'd realized that something was aiming to strike her, it was too late. The dart hit her square on the side of the neck, and within seconds, her vision began to blur. Darkness was surrounding her, pulling the dark-haired agent into unconsciousness, no matter how much she struggled to fight the sedative that was leaking into her bloodstream. She couldn't see anything, and she couldn't hear. Before she blacked out, the last thing she thought of was how cold it was.

* * *

"How long has it been since Grace left Malibu?" Tony asked absentmindedly, getting into his car.

"Thirty-five hours, sir," Jarvis replied.

"Ah, shit, she's probably already at the garage. How mad do you think she'll be that I left without her?" Tony asked.

"Quite angry. Actually, sir, I do know for a fact that she is at the garage because I was speaking with her when she pulled up."

"I'm surprised she hasn't called me yet to give me a piece of her mind."

"I think she's taking the silent approach, sir."

"Right you are, J. Hey, call up the kid. I wanna talk to him before we take down this bastard. Just a few more minutes, Jarvis."

"As you wish, sir."

Tony sat patiently in his car as he waited for Jarvis to complete the call between Harley's phone. Even though he'd left without Grace, he hadn't intended for that to happen. As soon as he'd figured out where the Mandarin was, he'd jumped on the opportunity. Grace would be angry, but she'd get over it; she always did, and besides, when he'd left the garage, he'd planned on getting there and back before she even got there.

Deep down, Tony knew that he was doing this just to keep Grace out of the whole fight. Of all people, Tony Stark knew that Grace was an ace at her trade, and she would've been able to have handled herself beautifully on this mission, but he just couldn't let her help him this time. The Mandarin had completely demolished their home, and he'd made things very personal for Tony, something that Tony wasn't about to forget anytime soon. In his heart, he felt that this was his mission to take, and he just couldn't reconcile himself with giving Grace the ok to join him. The farther away she was from this guy, the better off she was, he thought to himself.

Whenever Tony told her that he wanted to protect her, she accused him of being sexist because she was more than capable of taking care of herself, she was a SHIELD agent, blah blah blah. He'd heard all of it before many times over the years, but he couldn't stop how he was. Besides, whenever she started in on him being sexist, he'd just look at her.

"How is it sexist that I want to protect you, but it's not sexist that you want to protect me?" he always asked her. The last time he'd asked her, they'd been making fruit salad in the kitchen. She'd smiled at him, her amber eyes soft as she looked at him, and she'd wrapped her arms around his waist, leaning back slightly to look him square in the eye.

"You're all I have," she'd said. There had been no drama to the moment. She'd simply draped her arms around him loosely and looked at him, her voice calm and matter of fact.

"And you're all _I _have. We're square." And he'd shoved a strawberry in her mouth before she could say anything back.

"Hello?" Harley's high, annoying little voice filled the silence of the car around Tony. While he wanted to roll his eyes at the sound of it, he couldn't bring himself to do it. Harley was the only one he really knew for sure that he had on his side other than Grace, and really, she was probably fucking furious with him for leaving without her. Even so, the kid wasn't half bad.

"Is Grace there?" Tony asked.

"No. When's she supposed to get here? Is she lost? Does she know how to get here? What if she's lost?" Harley spewed out questions faster than any ammo Tony could've shot from any of his suits. The genius decided to ignore most of Harley's questions and answer the main one.

"She's supposed to be there already. She really isn't there?"

"Dude, if she were here, I'd totally know about it," Harley said, his grin obvious even over the phone. Tony glowered at the speakers from where the kid's voice was ejecting from.

"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked.

"Nothing," Harley replied, though the tone of his voice implied absolutely not nothing.

"You sound suspicious, and I don't like it. Remember that thing I told you about superhero girlfriends?"

"Yeah, why?" Harley asked.

"You wouldn't know she was there if she didn't want you to. Just think about that. Call me when she turns up."

"What else could she be doing? Why wouldn't she want me to see her? Does she know you're gone? Is she spying on me right now? Is she really quiet?"

"Hey, hey, hey. Kid. The questions. Really? And yeah, she could be spying on you, she could be spying on anyone. Who knows. Like I said, superhero girlfriends are weird, and they have their own methods of doing things. Remember, just call me when she shows up because she will whenever she's not busy scoping out the area or whatever."

"I can do that."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah! When I see her, I call you. Come on, I can take care of a little thing like that."

"Fine, fine. Sheesh, you're testy. Don't call for the next two hours, though. Call after that." Without another word, Tony hung up the phone and gazed straight ahead at the mansion in front of him. He had his own mission to take care of, and he figured he'd be pretty hung up taking care of it.

He knew he needed to just charge on in and take the Mandarin down, but for the first time in forever, he was nervous. Tony Stark was fucking nervous. He knew he was feeling the tiniest bit jittery because he was without his armor; he'd never gone on a mission without his armor, and this time he was doing it because he was _forced_ to. He didn't have a choice. Stilling the panicky thoughts in his head, he drew himself up taller in his seat. It was now or never. And with that thought in his mind, Tony pulled himself out of his car and began walking towards the mansion that held the Mandarin within.

* * *

"_No, Mom! No! Stop! No!"_

"_Shhh, you're ok."_

"_Mom, stop!"_

Heat.

Sarah Marks was leaning over Grace as she stared up at the biochemist, the needles pressed against Grace's limbs. The needles were everywhere, and suddenly, they were poking into her. Grace couldn't move as the liquid inside the needles began to drain from the glass containers and fill her own bloodstream. It was only a matter of seconds before her blood felt as though it were on fire. There was a rushing in her ears, and she wasn't sure if it were the sounds of her own screaming or the change that the injections promised. Her blood was on fire. Her bones were on fire. She was on fire.

Blinking hard, Grace's vision adjusted, and she suddenly found herself not in the basement of her childhood home where her parents had made their lab. As her senses struggled to tune into everything around her, the first thing she noticed was how hot she was. She wasn't cold anymore. As she became more aware of everything, she began to realize that she didn't know where she was. A bitter metallic taste was in her mouth, and she fought for control over her own muscles to try to swallow. What the fuck was going on? Where the fuck was she?

As she took in everything around her, she saw that she was strapped into what looked like a standing gurney. It was the only thing keeping her upright because she had no control over her leg muscles. Hell, she didn't have control over any of her muscles at all, it seemed. Panic began to fill her solar plexus as the unfamiliar surroundings take shape around her and as she began to realize that she had absolutely no control over her own body at all.

The bitter taste was back in her mouth, but this time it was panic. Her panic was so strong that it almost overwhelmed the deep, burning sensation that was happening beneath her skin. Wincing and forcing herself to breathe slowly, she tried to look down at herself. She was dressed only in yoga pants and a sports bra; how the hell she'd come to be in these things, she had no idea. As her memory slowly began to seep back into her brain, she remembered that she hadn't been wearing any of this whatsoever.

Keeping the panic at bay, she examined the rest of herself. She was sweaty and hot, and there was a needle jabbing into her left arm. Despite the pain and the burning inside her body, she was able to take in the tiny details that most people wouldn't: the computer in the background, the lining of the tiles on the floor, the smell of musty cologne that was familiar and nauseating all at the same time.

"Ah, she's awake." A smooth, controlled voice filled Grace's sensitive ears. For the first time in as long as she could remember, she couldn't identify where the sound was coming from. It was just coming. Blearily, she blinked her eyes hard again and squinted them, trying to adjust to the low lighting and the pain and the confusion that overwhelmed her entire body.

"Remember me?" A figure began to step into the light. Grace knew who it was before she even saw his face. Killian Aldrich. He was standing in front of her, his blonde hair slicked back, and his suit nice and neat and tailored perfectly. For a brief moment, Grace thought that she was going to throw up, though she wasn't sure if it would be because of the pain, the sensory overload, or the apparition of Aldrich Killian in front of her. In the midst of the desert of pain in every cell of her body, she imagined herself looking like one of those cartoon characters whenever they were sick: green in the face.

"You've been taking to the stuff quite well, I have to say. I'm not surprised, though. We've upped your dosage by far since, you know, you're super human and stuff like that. The dosage we're giving you would've killed anyone else a long time ago," Killian said calmly and evenly. Grace blinked at him, her face blank and completely unexpressive. As Killian stared at her, he smiled.

"That's right. I know all about your little Super Soldier Serum. And that's why I knew you'd be the perfect candidate to be my own little Super Soldier; you can't explode. Isn't that great?" Killian's smile spread even wider across his disgustingly tan face.

"I will find a way to kill you." Grace's voice was low and raspy, but it worked. The words felt strange and foreign in her mouth as she spoke them. She wondered how long she'd been out. From what Killian had said, she was able to infer that she'd been knocked out for at least several hours, enough to undergo the treatment that he was infusing her with, a treatment that she had no idea would do to her when it was done. At her threat, Killian laughed and shrugged it off as if she hadn't, well, threatened him but had instead told him an amusing anecdote about her day.

"Honey, you won't find a way to kill me. Your body's basically useless right now as Extremis is taking over your body, infusing itself into your DNA, your muscles, your bones, everything. And before you say it, Tony's not coming after you. I'm going to kill him. As soon as he realizes that I have you and what I'm planning to do with you, he's going to _try _to come save you, but I'm going to kill him. Don't look so emotionless, sweetheart. I know you're upset."

Grace put in all of her effort to tilt her head at Killian. Her face continued its same impassive expression, revealing nothing as to her true thoughts. Inside, she was screaming. The pain was excruciating, and the thought of Killian getting to Tony when she couldn't protect him was only making the pain worse. However, she revealed none of this. Instead, she simply tilted her head and studied him.

"I'm not upset," she said, each word straining with the effort it took her to say them.

"Really? It wouldn't upset you if I dragged your little lover boy in here and killed him right in front of you?" he asked. Grace allowed a slow smile to spread like warm honey across her face.

"You won't get the chance," she said softly. In moments like this, she was more than thankful for her SHIELD training and her strange, unnatural eyes. She held her gaze strong on Killian as he stared at her. She refused to look away, determined to bite through the agony that was flowing through her blood in order to make him give. Killian shifted his jaw to the side, looking the tiniest bit uncomfortable, but it was gone as soon as it had appeared. But it was enough. Grace had seen it flash through his eyes, and it was enough for her.

"Ok, sweetheart. You can tell yourself that all you want, but after you see what you can do with what I give you, you'll have a new view of me. You think you have power now? Just wait." Killian folded his arms across his chest, his gaze confident and arrogant. Grace looked away from him and down at her own body again, helpless against the restraints and the fire that flowed steadily into her physical being.

"What is this," she mumbled.

"Oh, I forgot that I haven't told you yet. Extremis. It's basically like the Super Soldier Serum. But better. Lose a limb, Extremis grows it back for you. You'll have powers beyond your wildest dreams. You'll be invincible."

Grace looked up at him again, masking the horror that she felt in the pit of her stomach. This was what was happening? She was being turned into an invincible being, and that was the last thing in the entire world that she wanted happening to her. Much to her dislike, she was already invincible enough. Adding Extremis on top of it would make it even fucking harder to kill her, and the thought made a chill mentally run down her spine.

"I'm hot," she spat out. Killian kept wearing that infernal grin on his tanned, easygoing face. He began to pace back and forth in front of her.

"It's a heat-based formula. The heat makes Extremis what it is, Grace. Heat is the only sign that people are alive these days, and heat will be what keeps them alive as the years go on. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

A burn began deep within Grace's body, and she closed her eyes, determined to fight against the pain. Even though she'd been burning this entire time, this was a new burn that took pain to a whole new level. She gritted her teeth and refused to let out a scream. She would not scream in front of Killian. Opening her eyes, she forced herself to refocus on him. He was speaking, but she couldn't hear him. A loud rush was in her ears, and she was struggling to keep her focus on him, but she found herself drifting farther away to escape the pain.

She had no doubt that Aldrich Killian would go after Tony and murder him right in front of her while she watched, unable to do anything. Even though she didn't know Aldrich Killian, she didn't doubt that part of him for a second. Reading people's character was something she excelled at, and what she read about Aldrich Killian made that feeling of nausea rise up deep within her again.

Tony. He wouldn't get Tony. She wouldn't let him get Tony, even though she was strapped down with fire running through her veins and her muscles going against her body. She would be damned, and if hellfire felt like this, she was sure she could take it.


	9. Agony

**Shoutouts to la misteriosa volpe, VampWolf92, and MsRose91!**

**I didn't make y'all wait close to a month for this update! I'm getting better, I swear!**

**Ok, so this chapter doesn't have any Grace narration because this is all Tony. Hopefully it's not too boring because a lot of it is very movie-verse. I skipped over where he totally destroys the guards in front of the mansion because I'm not trying to narrate the entire movie. However, I kept in the part with Trevor because he's just too damn funny. Hopefully y'all enjoy it!**

**Anyway, I know that Grace, while she plays a heavy part in this chapter, isn't in the chapter, but the next chapter will definitely include more of her. Guys, we're more than halfway done with this. I don't know what my next project is going to be! I'm thinking about writing an after-story with Tony and Grace, just a filler for in between Iron Man 3 and Avengers 2, but I'm definitely going to write some Agents of SHIELD stuff. I want to incorporate Grace into the Agents of SHIELD stuff because I like her character a lot. I think that she and Ward would actually be good friends because they've got that same kind of stony personality until you get to know them. So far, I'm thinking of writing just one Agents of SHIELD story where she like, "guest stars" or something. I don't know, man. I think it'd be cool to write her into one of their missions.**

**I'm also going to be writing some Supernatural fan fiction. God bless the Winchesters.**

**Anyway, this has been a long Author's Note. Sorry! Here's the chapter, and I hope y'all enjoy. PLEASE continue leaving me your thoughts and opinions. They're so incredibly valuable to receive.**

* * *

Chapter 9

Tony should've known that with his luck this would happen to him. Holding the gun level in front of him, he stared at the British man in front of him, confused as hell and wondering why the hell this bastard looked the Mandarin but didn't fucking sound like the Mandarin.

"Ladies, out," he snapped. "Get out of the bed. Get in the bathroom."

He barely glanced over his shoulder to make sure that the half-dressed women made it to the bathroom. His dark brown eyes flicked back to the man in front of him, and he made a conscious effort to keep his frustration and anger under control.

"Sit," he commanded, walking backwards to make sure that the women were safely secured in the bathroom. As he twisted the lock, he could hear protests at the nasty smell of what he assumed was the Mandarin look alike's shit.

Well, he couldn't say that things were boring in his life; there was plot twist after fucking plot twist, and at this point, all Tony really wanted was just to put a bullet through the Mandarin's head and to get back home to his fiancée. Narrowing his eyes at the man, he pressed his lips together and glared, making sure that the Mandarin look alike knew that he wasn't fucking around.

When he looked back, he saw the guy crawling across the floor in a pathetically obvious attempt to escape. Suppressing the urge to roll his eyes, Tony fired a warning shot at the Mandarin, purposely missing but close enough to scare the guy. The guy let out a cry and then crawled back to where he came from, perching on a chair. Tony crossed towards him, and when the guy saw that Tony meant business, he took a deep breath and began talking.

"My name is Trevor, Trevor Slattery," he said, almost sounding bored, as if he'd said it a thousand times before.

"What are you?" Tony demanded, the command strong in his voice. "What are you, a decoy? You're a double, right?"

"What, you mean like an understudy? No, absolutely not," Trevor protested, sounding almost insulted by Tony's assumption that he was an understudy. Tony raised his gun, and Trevor flinched. "Don't hurt the face! I'm an _actor_."

Tony blinked, putting on a deadpan that would have made Agent Grace Marks proud.

"You've got a minute to live. Fill it with words."

"It's just a role. "The Mandarin." See, it's not real."

"Then how did you get here, Trevor?" Tony asked, crossing a few feet to the right, his gun still trained on the British actor. Even though Trevor was talking, what he was saying wasn't quite making sense in Tony's brain. An actor. What the fuck were they using an actor for? And more importantly, who the fuck was behind all of this?

"Um, well, I, um, had a little problem with, um, substances. And I ended up, um, doing things—no two ways about it—in the street, that a man shouldn't do," Trevor said slowly. Annoyance flashed across Tony's face, and he blinked hard.

"Next," he snapped.

"Then _they_ approached _me_ about the role, and they knew about the drugs."

"What'd they say, they'd get you off them?"

"They said they'd give me more!" Trevor cheerfully corrected. "They gave me things. They gave me this palace. They gave me plastic surgery. They gave me things."

Then, to Tony's dismay, it appeared that Trevor had gone to sleep. For a second, Tony considered blasting the bastard's head off, but he didn't. He swallowed his annoyance and increasing frustration and fueled it into his interrogation.

"Did you just _nod off_? Hey." He kicked Trevor's feet hard enough to wake up the drug addict British actor. Jolting awake, Trevor blinked and picked up as if he hadn't just fallen asleep right in the middle of his sentence. Tony couldn't believe his fucking luck. He wanted to smash someone's head against the wall and just quit, but he stared at Trevor.

"No, and a lovely speedboat," the actor continued. "And, the thing was, he needed someone to take credit for some accidental explosions." Moving his hands and his mouth, he made tiny little explosion sounds and movements.

"'He'?" Tony asked, the anger clearly showing on his face now. He. Tony had a lead. He now knew that whoever was behind this was a male, and God, he was starting to make all kinds of connections that he hadn't known were there before. It was all starting to make sense, and the longer he stood there talking to Trevor, the more he was starting to understand just what he was getting into.

"Killian?" Tony asked, though he already knew the answer.

"Killian," Trevor repeated, for the first time sounding unsure as to what he was supposed to answer.

"He created you?" Tony asked.

"He created me." That same tone.

"Custom-made terror threat." By this point, Tony was thinking out loud now, not even paying that much attention to the fake Mandarin in front of him. It was making sense. It really was. Inside, he was kicking himself because he knew he should've seen it, but now he knew who his target was and where he had to strike next. The determination swelled in his solar plexus. He'd put up with enough bullshit from Killian/The Mandarin long enough, and it was about damn time that he put an end to it.

"Yes. Yes!" Trevor confirmed. "His think tank thinked it up." Suddenly, he got up and crossed to a side of the room. Tony had lowered his gun, and Trevor seemed to be celebrating the fact that he was no longer in danger. Then he switched into his Mandarin voice. "The pathology of a serial killer. The manipulation of Western iconography. Ready for another lesson? Blah, blah, blah." He turned around and held out a beer towards Tony. After Tony refused it, he continued talking.

"Of course, it was my performance that brought the Mandarin to life."

"Your performance?" Tony interrupted. "Where people died?"

"No, they didn't. Look around you. The costumes, green screen. Honestly, I wasn't on location for half the stuff. And when I was, it was movie magic, love."

"I'm sorry, but I got a best friend who's in a coma, and he might not wake up. So you're gonna have to answer for that. You're still going down, pal. You under—" It was in that moment that Tony saw the expression change on Trevor's face, and he suddenly knew that someone was behind him. Quickly, he turned around, ready to attack, but his assailant was quicker, and he'd taken a punch in the face. Everything was going dark around him, and he was slipping to the floor. As Tony was losing consciousness, the last thought going through his head was, _Why me?_

* * *

When Tony came to, he was only mildly disoriented. It didn't take him long to remember where he was and what he'd been doing when he'd taken a sucker punch to the face, but he didn't know where _exactly _he was. As he looked around, he saw that he was handcuffed to a bed. Ironically, he thought about the last time he'd been restrained in a bed, and he could only picture Grace leaning over him, her mouth sliding into a smirk, her body warm and bare above him. Swallowing, he drew his attention away from the memory and focused on what was around him. He wasn't alone; someone was in the room with him, and he knew exactly who it was, even from the back of her head.

"Ah. Okay," he breathed out as he struggled with his cuffs. Maya turned around to face him, the sounds of his struggling bringing her out of her academic reverie. As Tony's eyes settled on her, he noticed that the blood across her forehead was still there.

"It's just like old times, huh?" Maya calmly remarked.

"Oh, yeah. With zip ties. It's a ball." His gaze was accusatory and betrayed as she looked at him.

"It wasn't my idea," she replied, her voice still soft and calm.

"Ok. So you took Killian's card," Tony remarked.

"I took his _money_."

"And here you are, 13 years later, in a dungeon."

"No."

"Yeah."

"No, _you're _in a dungeon. _I'm _free to go."

As much as he didn't want to admit it, Maya had a point. His dark eyes continued to glare at her from his vulnerable position across the room. He was the most vulnerable he'd been in years, and he loathed the feeling of it. That was why he had his suits. That was why he built so many of them. Control. He couldn't be vulnerable in those suits because they were made to protect him, but here he was without any protection, and he was 100% exposed. He knew it, and Maya knew it, but he kept the look of panic out of his eyes. Speaking of panic, he knew that Grace was probably beyond furious by now. How was he going to explain this to her? _Sorry, honey, I got cuffed to a bed while I was off taking care of a villain I told you I wouldn't go after without you_.

"Yeah?" he mumbled in response to Maya. She let out a sigh and stood up, crossing over towards the window.

"A lot's happened, Tony. But I'm close. Extremis is practically stabilized," she said. She was coming closer and closer to him, and soon she was standing in front of him. At that point, he couldn't contain his anger towards her, towards Killian, towards the situation any longer.

"I'm telling you it isn't. I'm on the street. People are going bang. They're painting the walls. Maya, you're kidding yourself." He stared hard at her, making full eye contact with her and not allowing her to look away from him. He had to get through to her, and that was the mission he was faced with. In that moment, he _needed _to make her understand what she was doing and why it was wrong, even if it meant losing her funding with Killian. Goddammit, the Maya that he'd known back in Switzerland would've done the right thing, and he needed to find that same Maya again.

"Then help me fix it," she said emphatically, holding up something in her hands. Curiosity filled Tony as he stared at what looked like an old nametag: _You Know Who I Am _was written across it. Even if he hadn't recognized his old handwriting, he would've known just from the name on it that that was an old nametag of his. He could only picture Grace rolling her eyes. Maya flipped the tag over so that he could see an equation written on the back.

"Did I do that?" he asked, sounding mildly impressed with himself. As he looked at it, his brain was already whirring, getting into action. Thousands of thoughts and ideas began running through as he studied it and thought about ways to improve it. The words were barely out of his mouth, and he knew he'd said the wrong thing by the hurt, crestfallen expression on Maya's face, her hand dropping down to her side in disbelief.

"Yes," she said, her voice clearly laced with hurt emotions.

"I remember the night, not the morning," he said by way of making amends. She stared back at him, and he at her, his eyebrows raised in defense. Yes, he definitely remembered the night. "Is this what you've been chasing around?"

"You don't remember?" Her voice continued the same wounded, disappointed tone, and Tony couldn't bear to listen to it.

"I can't help you," he said. "You used to have a moral psychology. You used to have ideals. You wanted to help people. Now look at you. _I_ get to wake up every morning with someone who…still has their soul."

Maya gazed up at him as if she'd been slapped hard across the face. Her mouth set into a firm line, and she gave him a wry smile.

"You're saying that about an assassin who's killed over a thousand people?" she asked ironically.

"What she's doing is protecting the nation," Tony replied calmly. "She takes out threats like you so that they don't hurt the people like you used to be."

Maya blinked hard, and he knew he'd hit home with his comment. Her face lost its hard resolve and seemed to soften as she continued to stare up at him, the conflicting emotions written across her face.

"Get me out of here," he said quietly, convincingly. He turned on his big brown eyes, the ones that Grace said she could never resist, and he used them on Maya. "Come on."

Looking down and then back up at him, Maya turned and walked away. The disappointment and growing panic hit Tony hard in the stomach as he watched her walking away, the look on her face changing to bitter and hurt.

"You know what my old man used to say to me?" A voice came out of the darkness. Tony knew without a second thought that it was Killian. A sickness turned deep in his stomach, and he controlled himself so that he didn't clench his fists in rage. He refused to let Killian see how angry he was.

"One of his favorite many sayings, 'The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.'" As Killian crossed into the light, Tony saw the man, and he wanted to roll his eyes at the blonde's cocky, arrogant walk. Well, if Killian thought that he was going to get out of this alive, he was very, very wrong, and Tony was going to make sure of it.

"You're not still pissed off about the Switzerland thing, are you?" the billionaire asked blandly and casually, sounding as if he'd run into Killian at an old high school reunion instead of some bum ass mansion in Florida while he, Tony Stark, was cuffed to a bed.

"How can I be pissed at you, Tony? I'm here to thank you." Killian crossed towards Tony. The schmooze that oozed off of this guy was enough to make Tony feel as though he were going to puke all over the guy's Italian leather shoes. Though really, Tony thought to himself, he shouldn't be judging Killian's leather shoes because, hey, Tony Stark was the king of Italian leather shoes.

"You gave me the greatest gift that anybody's ever given me. Desperation." Killian was standing right in front of Tony, his smooth, easy voice sounding so fake but so genuine all at the same time. Tony was instantly suspicious, the pounding thoughts knocking against his skull like a hammer. "If you think back to Switzerland, you said you'd meet me on the rooftop, right? Well, for the first…20 minutes, I actually thought you'd show up. And the next hour, I…well, I considered taking that one-step shortcut to the lobby. If you know what I mean." Killian's eyes stared back at Tony. Pulling a Grace, Tony shut his face off so that he would be unreadable, and he kept his eyes trained on the floor.

"Honestly, I'm still trying to figure out what happened to the first mouse," he replied calmly, lifting his brown eyes to meet Killian's own eyes. He was doing what he knew best, hiding behind his quick wit and sharp humor. While his face was unreadable, his mouth was doing the work for him. Killian ignored him.

"But as I looked out over that city, nobody knew I was there, nobody could see me, no one was even looking. I had a thought that would guide me for years to come. Anonymity, Tony." Killian pointed a finger towards the billionaire. Briefly, Tony fantasized what it'd be like if he could just reach out and snap Killian's finger off. Alas, he was strapped to this damn bed with nowhere to go or anything to do. Again. He was vulnerable.

"Thanks to you, it's been my mantra ever since. Right?" Maya nodded in response to Killian's question. "You simply rule from behind the scenes. Because the second you give evil a face, a bin Laden, a Gaddafi, a Mandarin, you hand the people a target."

"You're something else," Tony mumbled out loud, not looking at the crazy guy in front of him. Tony had dealt with crazy plenty of times in the past; hell, Loki was fucking batshit crazy, and Tony wasn't even sure if he'd say that Loki was crazier than this piece of shit in Italian leather shoes standing only a few feet away. Killian sat down and began opening something. Suddenly, he looked up, genuine concern written on his face.

"You _have _met him, I assume?" he said.

"Yes. Sir Laurence Oblivier," Tony quipped.

"I know he's a little over the top sometimes. It's not entirely my fault. He has a tenden—he—he's a stage actor. They say his Lear was the Toast of Croydon, wherever that is."

Tony couldn't fucking believe he was handcuffed to a bed, listening to Aldrich Killian go on about the acting talents of the guy he'd chosen to play the Mandarin. Honestly, he couldn't imagine his life getting any weirder.

"Anyway, the point is, ever since that dude with the big hammer fell out of the sky, subtlety has kind of had its day."

"What's next for you in your world?" Tony asked.

"Well, I wanted to repay you the selfsame gift that you so graciously imparted to me."

Tony knew exactly that something was wrong. The words had literally just left Killian's lips, and he knew that something was horribly, horribly wrong. The gift that he'd given Killian was desperation, so that meant that Killian was going to use that on him. Fear gripped the back of his throat so fiercely that he could feel his windpipe constricting with the force of everything that meant something to him. Even though he knew what Killian was trying to say, he needed to hear the man say it.

Killian held up his hands and sent two small copper-colored balls rolling in Tony's direction. For a moment, Tony thought that this was it. The balls would explode, and he'd be sent to kingdom come. All the ways he'd thought and imagined that he was going to die, and it was going to be handcuffed to some bed without any kind of protection whatsoever. This was not what he'd envisioned for himself, and he almost felt mildly disappointed. Almost.

Killian held out a remote and pressed a button. A hologram arose from the balls, and Tony found himself looking at an image of Grace. She was strapped into something, and her face was covered in sweat. Her long brown hair was loose and down around her shoulders, sticking to any inch of skin that was soaked in her own sweat. Her eyes were shut tight, and she looked as though she were straining against something, as if she were trying to fight out pain. Tony couldn't fight the feeling of nausea and pure panic he felt as he watched Grace in front of him. His muscles surged with the urge to break free and shove his fist down Killian's throat. Grace.

The hologram of Grace opened her eyes, and he could see that they were a shinier, brighter amber than they usually were, and he could see past that to where she was keeping the pain hidden in a place so far back in her mind, he wasn't sure she would ever come out again. Then, Tony noticed that parts of her skin were glowing. A new kind of sickness settled down in his solar plexus as he realized what was surging through Grace's veins.

"Desperation," Killian said by way of explanation. "Now, this is live. I'm not sure if you can tell, but at this moment, the body is trying to decide whether to accept Extremis or just give up. And if it gives up, I have to say, the detonation is spectacular."

Tony watched, unable to tear his eyes away, as Grace closed her eyes again and then opened them, her mouth opening along with her eyes. He couldn't hear the sound that escaped her throat, but he knew she was letting out a cry of pain, and it was all he could do to keep from crying out with her. Watching her agony, his muscles jerked, tensing and pulling against his restraints to get loose. Nothing hurt quite so badly as watching Grace hurt, and he could tell that what she was experiencing was excruciating. Grace didn't show emotion. She didn't give a reaction to anything. She'd been smashed against a wall by the Hulk, and she hadn't given a reaction. She'd taken the blast from a Chitauri weapon, and she hadn't shown any kind of sign of pain. After taking the blast from the weapon, she'd had a burn on her back that had lasted for several days, and even though she hadn't said very much about it, he'd known that it'd been terrible pain for her until it'd healed.

Seeing her react to this pain told him that she was experiencing a kind of pain that was unbearable for her, and he knew that that amount of pain would be enough to kill her. Tony was unable to hide his emotions anymore; they were written across his face as he looked back at Killian. He was breathing through his mouth, forcing himself to try to remain calm, but as his eyes got shinier and shinier with each passing second, he wanted to gut Aldrich Killian on the fucking spot.

"But until that point, it's really just a lot of pain. Oh, I don't know how I forgot to mention this. The amount of Extremis that she's been injected with? It's about five times the amount of what we'd give someone who wasn't so…well-enhanced, for lack of a better word. That means that she's getting five times the dosage and five times the amount of pain. But don't worry, I think she'll make it through. Her body adapts quite well, and I think she'll be the perfect little specimen once it's done fusing with her DNA." Killian flicked the remote off, and the image of Grace was gone.

Just from watching that hologram, Tony was exhausted. His blood was pulsing with a vengeance that tasted bitter on the tip of his tongue. Grace. His Grace was being injected with something that even just one dosage of would've killed someone, and she was being given five times the amount. His Grace was being tortured somewhere, and he couldn't save her. Again, the feeling of helplessness that he'd felt when he'd plummeted back down to Earth rang so loudly in his ears that he wanted to scream and let out his own cry of pain, too.

"We haven't even talked salary yet," Killian said calmly and smoothly, completely unfazed by anything he'd just shown Tony. Yet Tony could tell as he looked at the evil in front of him that Killian was more than pleased by the reaction he'd gotten from Tony. This pain was exactly what he'd been looking for.

"What kind of perk package were you thinking of?" Killian's hand was around Tony's throat, and as Tony stared into the man's eyes, he saw Killian's skin glowing in the same way that Grace's had been. Extremis. Killian had his own little injection of it himself, Tony realized. That was how Killian had been able to completely transform from his dorky, crippled self into the man that he was today. Struggling to breathe, Tony kept calm and forced himself to make eye contact.

"Let him go," Maya said suddenly.

"Hold on, hold on," Killian mumbled conspiratorially to Tony. "Maya…"

Tony turned his attention to the brunette and saw her holding something to her neck. What the fuck was going on these days? He stared wide-eyed as he saw her blink back tears, staring defiantly at Killian, the needle glistening in the sunlight as the threat soaked the air in the room.

"I said let him go!" Maya's hard stare met Killian's eyes. A look of annoyance flashed across Killian's tanned mug.

"What are you doing?" he asked, sounding like a parent who was beyond irritated with a child who kept acting up.

"1200 CCs. A dose half of this size, I'm dead." She kept staring at him, daring him to make a choice she had faith he would make in her favor. Killian glanced back at Tony, shaking his head as if they were old buddies.

"It's times like this my temper is tested somewhat," he sighed. He looked back at Maya. "Maya, give me the injector."

"If I die, Killian, what happens to your soldiers? What happens to your product?" she asked, inching farther away from him.

"We're not doing this, ok?" Killian said, more of a statement than an actual question. Tony watched the tears fill Maya's eyes, the desperation that she was feeling as she looked down at Killian. She seemed sure that he would make the right choice, but Tony didn't get that feeling. But he felt a small sense of pride. He was proud of her because she'd taken back that moral psychology she'd lost so many years ago. Better late than never, Tony thought in the back of his mind that was still allowing some humor to seep through, despite the seriousness of the situation.

"What happens to _you_?" Maya continued. "What happens if you go too hot?"

Killian sighed deeply, and he turned around to face Tony. He made eye contact with the billionaire, and before anyone knew what he was doing, he'd lifted his gun and shot Maya. The bang pressed hard in Tony's ears, and her eyes met his as she sank to the ground. Her face was etched with a disbelief he couldn't believe she had even held in the first place. He couldn't look at her, and he blinked, looking away.

"The good news is, a high-level position has just been vacated," Killian said smoothly, as if he hadn't just killed the woman who'd held the key to keeping him from getting too hot. Maya dropped to the floor, and Tony let out a sharp release of breath as he understood that she was dead. Disbelief swirled around his own brain, though he wasn't sure why he was even in shock over this whole thing. God, he knew what evil looked like. He _knew_. And yet he continued to be surprised when shitfucks like Aldrich Killian showed up and displayed the blackness of their hearts as if the blackness and the emptiness were to be admired.

"You are a maniac," he said, his voice low as the words left his dry cavity of his mouth.

"No, I'm a visionary." Killian was walking up the stairs, taking his exit. He barely looked behind him. "But I do own a maniac. And he takes the stage tonight." Killian was gone.

Once Tony was alone, he closed his eyes, the images of everything that had just taken place tattooed on the backs of his eyelids. Even with his eyes shut he could still see Maya's face as her life seeped out of her. He could still see Grace, her head thrown back, her hair stuck to her, her skin glowing, as her mouth opened in a cry of pain that he couldn't take away from her. Killian had known how to hit him in the balls, and he'd done just that. As Tony stood there, handcuffed to this fucking bed, he knew he'd failed at doing the thing he'd wanted to do most in the world: keep Grace safe. That was why he'd left Tennessee without her; he'd wanted her safe, and away from the Mandarin was safe. His suits…his fucking suits. They'd all been made so he could protect the two of them from any harm. How in the world had this happened?

All kinds of questions powered through Tony's mind. How had Killian gotten his hands on her? How had he tracked her all the way down to Tennessee without her knowledge? Grace was a damn good agent, and she would've known if she'd been tailed.

"Goddammit, Grace," he said quietly out loud, his throat closing in on him as he said Grace's name. Her amber eyes, illuminated bright and shiny from the heat that blazed within her blood, within her skull. He couldn't get the image of it out of his brain, and he wanted to bash his head against the wall until he couldn't see it anymore.

He tried to push the image out of his mind, instead calling up old memories that he had of her. Reaching back through several years of memories, he pictured her the very first time he'd kissed her, the very first time he'd told her he loved her. He called to mind the one time they'd sparred together, and she'd flipped him so hard that she'd broken his ribs. He recalled fighting in New York with her, seeing her take down aliens as easily as if she'd been breathing. He remembered giving her a back/shoulder/neck massage after she'd come home physically exhausted and sore from a mission about a month back. He pictured the light playing off her dark brown hair as she'd sat in front of him, her head ducked forward as he'd kneaded out the knots that were knitting up her shoulders. He pictured her eyes as she told him she loved him, calm and alive. A lump moved through his esophagus, and he found that his eyes were again wet from the stinging images that had just run through his brain. The one thing he'd wanted to protect was what he'd failed to protect. Tony Stark had felt a lot of negative things about himself in his lifetime, but he'd never felt like a failure until now.


End file.
